Mike Braun

Meyer Distributing, the Jasper, Indiana auto-parts company founded and long led by Mike Braun, was found by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division to have committed 26 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act for failing to pay legally required overtime to 25 employees between December 2008 and December 2010, resulting in $39,402 in back wages paid. A further FLSA violation was recorded for 2013-2015. The findings, along with a separate 2009 settlement with a fired employee over overtime pay and 41 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration citations for hours-of-service logging violations since 2015, were compiled and reported by PolitiFact and the Associated Press during Braun's 2018 Senate campaign. Braun was not personally named in the DOL findings; the violations were attributed to the company, of which he was founder, CEO and majority owner during the relevant period.

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.

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.