In late 2024, FBI investigators had enough evidence to launch a sweeping bribery probe that could ensnare top lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins. The agency was examining interactions between Collins and a top donor: Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek.
According to Kao, in 2019, the head of the pro-Collins super PAC met with him and other Navatek execs and asked for a $500,000 donation. Government contractors are banned from making political contributions. For the company to offer donations to Collins in exchange for an official action, or for Collins to accept, would constitute criminal bribery.
To skirt campaign finance laws and conceal the source of the funds, Kao sent an initial $150,000 to the super PAC using a shell company, saying he had cleared it with his lawyer. The head of the super PAC knew Kao was behind the donation. “Very smart,” he replied in an email viewed by ProPublica.
Weeks later, Kao told his team Collins committed to getting the company $32 million in naval contracts.
But the FBI saw through Kao’s shell company ruse. In 2022, a grand jury indicted him for making illegal campaign contributions. Facing years in prison, Kao revealed the full scheme to the FBI, hoping to reduce his sentence. What he told them has never before become public.
Kao and his close associates donated nearly $900,000 to dozens of politicians, allowing Navatek to establish operations in half a dozen states with more than $40 million a year in government funds. Collins, Kao said, was Navatek’s most important patron.
Then President Donald Trump returned to office — and the FBI and Department of Justice teams that handled public corruption cases were eviscerated. The investigation died, and the government stopped talking to an informant who had offered a road map to corruption in Congress.
ProPublica revealed the existence of the case for the first time.
Collins’ deputy chief of staff said that her office “vigorously” denies allegations of bribery and pay-for-play made by Kao and that her office “fully cooperated” with the FBI. After our story was published, the senator mustered a defense that was full of incorrect and misleading claims, calling ProPublica’s reporting a “smear job” that took “the words of a twice-convicted felon over my office, campaign staff and me.”
ProPublica reviewed a trove of evidence gathered by the FBI and thousands of pages of legal records, and interviewed dozens of people familiar with Navatek, its Washington operations and the FBI inquiry to conduct our own investigation.
The White House referred us to the FBI. A spokesperson said the FBI “ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins” or her campaign. The FBI spokesperson did not address questions about the new phase of the investigation prompted by Kao’s account.
Navatek founder Steven Loui said Kao’s methods were “unethical and illegal” and that the company fully complied with law enforcement.
Watch our video to learn more on how we independently corroborated much of Kao’s account.
