Afront organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization that acts for the parent group without the actions being attributed to the parent group, thereby allowing them to hide certain activities from the authorities or the public.[1] The term was popularized by SenatorJoe McCarthy, as he described various communist activities.[1][2]
Intelligence agencies use front organizations to provide "cover", plausible occupations and means of income, for their covert agents. These may include legitimate organizations, such as charity, religious or journalism organizations; or "brass plate firms" which exist solely to provide a plausible background story, occupation, and means of income.
Brewster Jennings & Associates was a front company set up in 1994 by theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a cover for its officers.
The airlineAir America, an outgrowth ofCivil Air Transport of the 1940s, andSouthern Air Transport, ostensibly a civilian air charter company, were operated and wholly owned by theCIA, supposedly to providehumanitarian aid, but flew many combat support missions and suppliedcovert operations inSoutheast Asia during theVietnam War.[3] Other CIA-funded front groups have been used to spread Americanpropaganda and influence during theCold War, particularly in theThird World.[4]When intelligence agencies work through legitimate organizations, it can cause problems and increased risk for the workers of those organizations.[5] To prevent this, the CIA has had a 20-year policy (since 1976, per US Government sources) of not usingPeace Corps members or US journalists for intelligence purposes.[6][7]
Another airline allegedly involved in intelligence operations was RussianAeroflot that worked in a close coordination withKGB,SVR andGRU.[8] The company conducted forcible "evacuations" of Soviet citizens from foreign countries back to the USSR. People whose loyalty was questioned were drugged and delivered unconscious by Aeroflot planes, assisted by the company KGB personnel, according to former GRU officerVictor Suvorov.[9] In the 1980s and 1990s, specimens of deadly bacteria and viruses stolen from Western laboratories were delivered by Aeroflot to support theRussian program of biological weapons. This delivery channel encoded VOLNA ("wave") meant "delivering the material via an international flight of the Aeroflot airline in the pilots' cabin, where one of the pilots was a KGB officer".[8] At least two SVR agents died, presumably from the transported pathogens.[8]
When businessmanNikolai Glushkov was appointed as a top manager of Aeroflot in 1996, he found that the airline company worked as a "cash cow to support international spying operations" according toAlex Goldfarb:[10] 3,000 people out of the total workforce of 14,000 in Aeroflot wereFSB, SVR, or GRU officers. All proceeds from ticket sales were distributed to 352 foreign bank accounts that could not be controlled by the Aeroflot administration. Glushkov closed all these accounts and channeled the money to an accounting center called Andava inSwitzerland.[10] He also sent a bill and wrote a letter to SVR directorYevgeni Primakov and FSB directorMikhail Barsukov asking them to pay salaries of their intelligence officers in Aeroflot in 1996.[10] Glushkov was imprisoned in 2000 on charges of illegally channeling money through Andava. Since 2004 the company is controlled byViktor Ivanov, a high-ranking FSB official who is a close associate ofVladimir Putin.
TheFBI has acknowledged using at least thirteen front companies to conceal their use of aircraft to observe criminal activity in the United States, including:[11][12]
Manyorganized crime operations have substantial legitimate businesses, such as licensedgambling houses, building construction companies, hair salons and karaoke bars, engineering firms, restaurants and bars, billiard clubs, trash hauling services, or dock loading enterprises. These front companies enable these criminal organizations tolaunder their income from illegal activities. As well, the front companies provide plausible cover for illegal activities such asillegal gambling,extortion,drug trafficking,smuggling, andprostitution.Tattoo parlors are often used as fronts foroutlaw motorcycle clubs.[13]
Wherebrothels are illegal, criminal organizations set up front companies providing services such as a "massage parlor" or "sauna" to the point that "massage parlor" or "sauna" is thought as a synonym ofbrothel in these countries.[14]
A Colombian drug cartel, theCali Cartel, in the past used Drogas La Rebaja, now a large national pharmacy store chain, as a front company in order to launder their drug trafficking earnings.[15]
The General Manager of the Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club inCheektowaga, New York, was the international leader of theOutlaws Motorcycle Club: John Ermin. Many Outlaws MC members also work at the club. Authorities have referred to Pharaoh's as a hot spot for drug dealing and sex trafficking.[16] The club's owner was Peter G. Gerace Jr., the nephew of reputedBuffalo crime family boss Joseph A. Todaro Jr.[17] The Outlaws Motorcycle Club, themselves, have been designated by federal law enforcement as a criminal enterprise.[18]
In the early 2000s, theBlack Mafia Family established the Atlanta-basedrecord label BMF Entertainment as a front company to launder funds that were generated from the sale ofcocaine.[19][20][21]
The boxing management companyMTK Global is owned by the reputed Irish gang bossDaniel Kinahan. Heredia Boxing Management alleges that MTK Global was established as a front company to launder funds made from drug trafficking.[22]
During the year of 2019,ACT Police shut down the Lakeside Tattoo Parlour inBelconnen on the grounds of it being allegedly used to launder cash for the notorious outlaw motorcycle gang,Comanchero Motorcycle Club. The money laundered through the tattoo parlor allegedly came from the club'sdrug trafficking operations.[23][24][25]
TheChurch of Scientology uses front groups either to promote its interests in politics, to make its group seem more legitimate, and to recruit.[26] TheFBI's July 8, 1977 raids on the Church's offices (following discovery of the Church'sOperation Snow White) turned up, among other documents, an undated memo entitled "PR General Categories of Data Needing Coding". This memo listed what it called "Secret PR Front Groups," which included the group APRL, "Alliance for the Preservation of Religious Liberty" (later renamed "Americans Preserving Religious Liberty").[27] TheCult Awareness Network (CAN) is considered by many[who?] to now be a front group for the Church of Scientology, which took the group over financially after bankrupting it in a series of lawsuits.[28][29]
Time identified several other fronts for Scientology, including: theCitizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR),The Way to Happiness Foundation,Applied Scholastics, theConcerned Businessmen's Association of America, andHealthMed Clinic.[30] Seven years later theBoston Herald showed howNarconon andWorld Literacy Crusade were also fronts for Scientology.[31]Other Scientology groups includeDowntown Medical,Criminon and theAssociation for Better Living and Education (ABLE).
South Africa'sapartheid-era government used numerous front organizations to influence world opinion and to undertakeextra-judicial activities and the killing of anti-apartheid activists; these included[32] the following:
Communist parties (especiallyMarxist-Leninist ones) have sometimes used front organizations to attract support from those (sometimes called "fellow travellers") who do not fully agree with the party's ideology but agree with certain aspects of it. The front organization often obscures its provenance and may often be a tool for recruitment. OtherMarxists often describe front organizations asopportunist. The concept of a front organization should be distinguished from theunited front (acoalition ofworking class orsocialist parties) and thepopular front. Both the united front and the popular front usually disclose the groups that make up their coalitions.
According to a list prepared in 1955 by the United StatesSenate Internal Security Subcommittee, theComintern set up no less than 82 front organizations in the United States in the 1930s and the 1940s.[37]
Soviet intelligenceinfiltrated many peace movements in the West. In addition to theWorld Peace Council, important communist front organizations included theWorld Federation of Trade Unions, theWorld Federation of Democratic Youth, and theInternational Union of Students.[38]Richard Felix Staar has also suggested that these organizations were somewhat less important front organizations:Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation,Christian Peace Conference,International Association of Democratic Lawyers,International Federation of Resistance Movements,International Institute for Peace,International Organization of Journalists,Women's International Democratic Federation, andWorld Federation of Scientific Workers.[39] There were also numerous smaller organizations, affiliated with the above fronts such asPugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.[40][41] Numerous peace conferences, congresses and festivals have been staged with support of those organizations.[42]
More recently, theWorkers' World Party (WWP)[43] set up ananti-war front group,International ANSWER. (ANSWER is no longer closely associated with WWP; it is closely associated with a WWP splinter, theParty for Socialism and Liberation, but PSL plays a more open role in the organization.) Similarly,Unite Against Fascism, theAnti-Nazi League, theStop the War Coalition andRespect – The Unity Coalition are all criticised as being fronts for theTrotskyistSocialist Workers Party (UK).
In April 1991, theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union leadership and theKGB created a puppet political party in Russia, theLiberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union (LDPSU), which became the second officially-registered party in the country.[44] According to KGB GeneralPhilipp Bobkov, it was a "Zubatov's pseudo-party under KGB control that directs interests and sentiments of certain social groups".[45] The formerSoviet Politburo memberAlexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev described in his book how KGB DirectorVladimir Kryuchkov presented the project of the puppet party at a joint meeting withMikhail Gorbachev and informed him about a selection of party leaders and the mechanism of funding from Communist Party money.[45] The book includes an official copy of a document providing the initial Liberal Democratic Party funding (3 million rubles) from the Communist Party's money. The Liberal Democratic leader,Vladimir Zhirinovsky, proved to be an effective media performer[44] and gained 8% of votes during the1991 presidential elections.[46] He also supported theAugust 1991 coup attempt.
Theunited front is a political strategy and network of groups and key individuals that are influenced or controlled by theChinese Communist Party (CCP) and used to advance its interests. It has traditionally been apopular front that has included eightlegally permitted political parties: theChinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), theAll-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, theChina Council for the Promotion of International Trade, theAll-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, and otherpeople's organizations.[47] UnderChinese Communist Party General SecretaryXi Jinping, the united front and its targets of influence have expanded in size and scope.[48][49][50][51] The united front is managed primarily by but is not limited to theUnited Front Work Department (UFWD).
Ananti-Islamistfeminist group in theMuslim world has also been accused of being a front organization. TheOrganization of Women's Freedom in Iraq has been accused of being a front for theWorker-Communist Party of Iraq.[52][53]
Historian Matthew Dallek writes that theJohn Birch Society's (JBS) pioneering use of front organizations starting in the late 1950s helped spread far-right issues outside of the JBS and into broader public discourse and that it "became a template for conservative advocacy for decades to come."[54]
In 2014,Andrew Cuomo established a front political party, theWomen's Equality Party. The party was established to take advantage ofelectoral fusion laws inNew York State that allow candidates to run on multiple ballot lines and to count all of their votes together. Critics of the party and of Cuomo have noted that there is an inherent level of deception involved in the party, as Cuomo is not a woman, the party has not favored women in its endorsement policies, and Cuomo's gubernatorial campaign fund is the primary source of revenue for the party's operations.[55]
Both Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries in Ireland duringthe Troubles used cover names when they carried out sectarian attacks against civilians.Republican groups like the Provisional IRA and theIrish National Liberation Army used front names like theSouth Armagh Republican Action Force,Catholic Reaction Force and the People's Republican Army to claim responsibility for attacks on civilians,[56]
During theWeimar Republic in Germany, the anti-Semitic and nationalistOrganisation Consul reportedly had a front company named the Bavarian Wood Products Company.[57]
Over the past 15 years, increasing concerns aboutobesity have causedCoca-Cola to experience pressure from social movement activists to reduce the sugar content in its drinks. Although Coca-Cola has publicly promoted consumer engagement in healthy lifestyles with its campaigns such as 'Coming Together', activists have also exposed that Coca-Cola has secretly fundedfront groups or organizations that criticize social movement activists and legitimize controversial corporate activities. TheCenter for Consumer Freedom (CCF) andGlobal Energy Balance Network (GEBN) are two main groups that engage activists on behalf of Coca-Cola even though they were not intended to be publicly associated with Coca-Cola as a corporation. Research has revealed that the CCF, with a mission to "promote responsibility and protectconsumer choices", uses both verbal and visual strategies to articulate obesity as "personal responsibility" to protect the industry from corporate responsibility.[58]
Tobacco companies frequently use front organizations and doctors to advocate their arguments about tobacco use although less openly and obviously than in the 1980s. TheWorld Health Organization has charged that the tobacco industry funded seemingly-unbiased scientific organizations to undermine tobacco control measures and cited theInternational Life Sciences Institute in particular.[59] Another way to combat public health measures against tobacco is to use lobbying and campaign contributions. For example,RJ Reynolds, the current second-largest tobacco company in the United States, created a front group named Get Government Off Our Back ("GGOOB") in 1994 to fight federal regulation of tobacco. By hiding its involvement with tobacco industry, GGOOB avoided the tobacco industry reputation for misrepresenting evidence and drew big supports from both public and legislative aspects, successfully resolving the threats from wide-reaching tobacco regulations.[60]
A list of some alleged corporate front groups active in the US is maintained by theMultinational Monitor.[61] Somethink tanks are corporate front groups. These organizations present themselves as research organizations, using phrases such as "...Institute for Research" in their names. Because their names suggest neutrality, they can present the commercial strategies of the corporations which sponsor them in a way which appears to be objectivesociological oreconomical research rather than political lobbying.
Similarly theCenter for Regulatory Effectiveness has been criticised as a front organization for various industry bodies which seek to undermine regulation of their environmentally damaging activities under the guise of 'regulatory effectiveness'.[62]
Astroturfing, a wordplay based on "grassroots" efforts, is an American term used pejoratively to describe formalpublic relations projects which try to create the impression of a groundswell of spontaneous popular response to a politician, product, service, or event. Corporations have been known to "astroturf", but are not the only entities alleged to have done so. In recent years, organizations of plaintiffs' attorneys have established front groups such asVictims and Families United to opposetort reform.[63]
We know many cult movements that maintain client services as front organizations facilitating recruitment to the sponsoring movement. Examples include Scientology...