Mike Braun

The FEC audited Mike Braun's 2018 U.S. Senate campaign (Braun for Indiana) and found multiple campaign finance violations. The campaign failed to correctly disclose loan balances, terms, dates, and repayment information for transactions totaling $11.5 million across three bank loans, 13 lines of credit, and 13 candidate loans from July 2017 through December 2018. Additional violations included overstating receipts and disbursements by more than $6 million each, failure to disclose required occupational data for approximately 1,363 contributors, and improper disclosure of joint fundraising memos worth $930,000. The FEC initially alleged $8.5 million in impermissible loans (later retracted after new documentation) and also found that Braun contributed $750,000 more to his own campaign than legally allowed. The campaign attributed violations to clerical errors by former treasurer Travis Kabrick, who Braun claimed had 'vanished'—a claim quickly rebutted by journalists. The FEC voted 6-0 to accept a conciliation agreement in March 2024 imposing a $159,000 civil penalty, described at the time as the second-largest fine ever imposed on a senatorial campaign. Braun subsequently sued Kabrick and his employer in 2026.

Following a multi-year FEC audit and enforcement matter arising from his 2018 U.S. Senate campaign, the Federal Election Commission found that Mike Braun's campaign committee (Mike Braun for Indiana) failed to properly disclose loan balances, terms, dates and repayment information for transactions totaling about $11.5 million (three bank loans, lines of credit and candidate loans), overstated funds raised and spent, and failed to fully disclose required information for roughly 1,363 contributors. The FEC initially alleged the campaign illegally accepted improper loans, but after the campaign provided documentation, the violations were attributed to clerical errors by a former campaign treasurer and treated as civil rather than criminal. On March 29, 2024 the FEC posted a conciliation agreement under which the campaign paid a $159,000 civil penalty - reported as among the largest fines ever for a Senate campaign. The penalty was paid by the campaign committee, not Braun personally.

This is a civil settlement against a business entity, Meyer Distributing - the Jasper, Indiana automotive parts distribution company that Mike Braun owned and ran as President/CEO (he last earned a salary from the company in 2019). The U.S. Department of Justice and EPA alleged that between January 1, 2018 and September 16, 2020, Meyer Distributing sold more than 90,000 aftermarket 'defeat devices' that remove or disable vehicle emissions controls, in violation of Section 203(a)(3)(B) of the Clean Air Act. Braun owned the company during the violation period (he was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2018). Under a consent decree lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on January 6, 2025 (announced January 10, 2025), Meyer Distributing agreed to pay a $7.4 million civil penalty, fund an approximately $1.2 million emissions-mitigation project, cease manufacturing/selling/installing defeat devices, destroy its remaining inventory, and undertake Clean Air Act compliance measures. Braun was not personally named as a defendant; the action was against the company.

Meyer Distributing, Inc.—a Jasper, Indiana-based automotive parts company founded by Mike Braun in 1986, which he built as CEO and majority owner until handing management to his children when he entered the U.S. Senate in 2018—reached a $7.4 million civil settlement with the EPA and DOJ in January 2025 for selling more than 90,000 aftermarket emissions defeat devices in violation of Section 203(a)(3)(B) of the Clean Air Act. The violations occurred between January 1, 2018, and September 16, 2020. The devices included exhaust gas recirculation blockers and pipes that replaced pollution treatment components, with EPA estimating excess emissions equivalent to adding 700,000 vehicles to U.S. roads. Braun was not personally named as a defendant; the consent decree was entered against Meyer Distributing, Inc. alone. Senate financial disclosures confirm Braun continued to receive a salary from Meyer in 2019 and retained stock in both Meyer Distributing Inc. and Meyer Logistics Inc. through at least the time he filed to run for governor. The violations overlap with a period when Braun still had financial ties to the company though he had stepped back from day-to-day management.