new campaign disclosure report shows us money is mostly shut off in dutch politics creditbart maateuropean pressphoto agencymarch 8 2017the hague as concern grows that dutch politics is being influenced by american money a new campaign disclosure report released in the netherlands on wednesday provided a twist the spigot of american cash seems to have been mostly shut offthe report coming a week ahead of contentious national elections and amid a dutch experiment with campaign finance disclosure showed that the burst of money donated in 2015 to the farright leader geert wilders has dropped sharply yet in europe where disclosure laws are porous loopholes in the dutch laws still prevent a full picture of the scope and influence of foreign moneythe report showed that mr wilders and his party for freedom which has been running first or second in dutch polls received about 25000 last year from the david horowitz freedom center run by david horowitz an american activist with strident views on islam in addition a buffalobased company listed in the new dutch records as fol inc appeared in the records as giving roughly 7400 in november the company could not be immediately identified in new york state records that is still a sharp drop from 2015 when mr horowitzs center donated nearly 120000 to the party for freedom making it the largest individual donation that year in the dutch political system which is small and parochial compared with american politicsover all the largest individual donor listed in wednesdays filing appeared to be metterwoon vastgoed a real estate agency led by chris thunnessen a businessman from the hague the firm gave about 158000 this year to 50plus a small party representing the interests of older voters the firm gave nearly 106000 last year to the same partywith political populism surging across europe the party for freedom has been a polarizing presence in dutch politics with inflammatory views of islam and the partys financing has been largely mysterious political campaigns in the netherlands are usually funded with public money or from party membership fees but unlike other parties the party for freedom has only one official member mr wilders allowing it to avoid internal budget disclosures to a broader membershipthe dutch have tightened their disclosure system in recent years but gaps still leave it open to outside manipulation donations totaling less than 4500 euros annually about 4750 do not have to be made public or reported to regulators and foreign donations are also permitted though legislation to ban such gifts has broad support in parliamentthe party for freedom listed only three donors in the latest filing two of which were american few other foreign donations have surfaced in dutch records in recent years one exception was chris rufer an american who founded a californiabased company that produces tomato paste and other tomato products in bulk he gave nearly 5000 to the tiny libertarian party in 2015 according to federal records he has been an active donor to libertarian candidates and