Business Group Accused of Improper Use of Money

A union-backed watchdog group has asked the IRS to investigate the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, charging that the chamber appears to have channeled donations from a charity into its political work.

The Chamber of Commerce denied the accusations. The IRS does not comment on such complaints.

U.S. Chamber Watch, a group formed in May with financial support from labor unions, alleges that $18-million in loans and grants from the Starr Foundation to a charitable affiliate of the Chamber of Commerce were improperly mixed with the chamber’s own funds and used for political activities. Those activities included an effort to fight corporate-accountability laws, the group alleges. The Starr Foundation’s chairman is Maurice R. Greenberg, formerly the chief executive of the insurance giant American International Group, known as AIG.

Tita Freeman, a spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce, said the Starr Foundation provided $15-million in contributions to the charitable affiliate.

She said the contributions were not mixed with the chamber’s funds and were not used for political activities.

The Starr Foundation had no comment.