But to his neighbors in a #RhodeIsland beachfront enclave, he is better known as the #PrimeSuspect in the #NarragansettRunestoneAffair.

A hulking boulder once positioned just offshore in #NarragansettBay, the #runestone bears inscriptions that some believe were left by #Viking #explorers. It was the stuff of local lore & attracted visitors at low tide — to the consternation of #Mellon, the pedigreed businessman whose home looked out on the rock.

And then one day it was gone.

#criminal #law

A #criminal investigation yielded a #witness who had heard sounds of heavy machinery at night. Mellon refused to talk & hired a former state AG as his lawyer. Nearly a year later, the matter was resolved quietly: Mellon agreed to return the stone, & prosecutors agreed not to bring charges.

#archaeology #anthropology #history #criminal #law

All told, he has given $227M in contributions to federal candidates & political committees since 2020, nearly all to #Republicans — a sum that puts him in the top echelon of the party’s donors, alongside far better-known megadonors like #MiriamAdelson & her husband, Sheldon, who died in 2021, & Liz & Dick #Uihlein.

Yet for all his financial #influence, #Mellon & his interests — & what exactly is motivating his largess — have remained largely a mystery.

#DarkMoney #USPol #criminal #law

Interviews w/his associates, along w/a review of #court documents & other public records, reveal an ideologically driven #conservative w/a #combative streak. #Mellon spent most of his life leveraging his family #fortune to create his own. His freight railroad, a regional line that repeatedly ran afoul of #worker & #environmental #protections, was recently sold for $600M.

#DarkMoney #USPol #criminal #law #OSHA #EPA

Okay too interesting & important so here’s another #GiftArticle on the first day of the month … this is how it goes …

#Trump #DarkMoney #MAGA #Republicans #authoritarianism #autocracy #kleptocracy #democracy #Harris2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-2024-campaign-timothy-mellon.html?unlocked_article_code=1._00.dTtQ.adwSSBSrosHR&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

#TimothyMellon was also the biggest donor to #Trump’s #border #wall that never was built more than, what? a ⅓ of the border’s length, mostly in places where there were preexisting barriers.

Mellon contributed 98% of Texas’ border wall fund.

Pretty sure #Bannon walked away w/that cash.

#DarkMoney #corruption #MAGA #Republicans #isolationism #weird
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/06/timothy-mellon-texas-border-wall/