Spanish political parties accused of dodging the law using crowdfunding websites

CROWDFUNDING websites have created a loophole in party financing legislation that could be used to dodge legal restrictions on donations.

Online donors are not required to provide their name, ID and address the way other donors are, which makes it difficult to identify individual donors.

Spain’s Audit Court is demanding that the websites are now more closely regulated to prevent parties taking advantage of the loophole.

Anti-corruption party Podemos used crowdfunding websites to finance its European election campaign.

A report from the watchdog breaks down party spending during the lead up to the elections in May last year.

It reveals that nearly €50,000 in individual donations were not properly identified, alongside other ‘deficiencies’ and ‘inconsistencies’.