A few days ago, Left Twitter was abuzz with news of a new super PAC called "BeatBernie2020" which appeared with almost no information about itself other than a donation link on their NationBuilder generic website. I said I thought I knew who was behind it. Here's my thread 1/
I don't want to be accused of doxxing anyone, and I've seen people tweet that attempts to post a screenshot of the FEC filing were blocked because they include a phone number. So here's the link for the report, take a look for yourself: docquery.fec.gov/pdf/323/202002…
Much credit is due to @Alt_LeftAlabama for digging up the only person listed as the contact for this group, which I wasn't able to do. He has a name very similar to a former hockey player and there's almost nothing about him online
@Alt_LeftAlabama This individual (let's call him "Mr. W") is listed, with a phone number which appears to have been brought into existence solely for this project, as working at 660 N Capitol St NW. He is not a barred attorney in DC, NY, MD, VA, WV, PA, DE, FL or CA (I looked) 
@Alt_LeftAlabama So, being unable to find more about Mr. W, I figured I should take a look at the address listed. It's a new office building owned by Republic Properties at 660 N Capitol Street NW in Washington DC.
@Alt_LeftAlabama Many people going down this investigatory path seem to have been stopped in their tracks because the best-known tenant in this building is WeWork, the famous coworking space and real estate swindle. But my guess is that this operation is not being run out of a hot desk...
@Alt_LeftAlabama The largest tenant at Republic's building here is a coalition of local governments, who lease a bit less than half of the space. But there was one other tenant who caught my eye at the same address @BeatBernie2020 is registered:
Mylan Pharmaceuticals.
b2byellowpages.com/street/660/n/c…
Mylan Pharmaceuticals.
b2byellowpages.com/street/660/n/c…
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 Mylan Pharmaceuticals, currently an inverted holding company officially called Mylan NV (MYL), is a pretty good candidate for the money and power behind @BeatBernie2020. Lo and behold, Mylan's PACs are also registered at the same address docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/…
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 Mylan is that company! (Apparently this is some sort of slogan of theirs.) A pharmaceutical concern w/US headquarters in PA, but with offices in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its current CEO is West Virginia native Heather Bresch. Heather Bresch is WV Senator Joe Manchin's daughter.
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 Now, the evidence linking @BeatBernie2020 to Mylan NV's PAC is, admittedly, circumstantial. The only concrete link we have is that they share an address (no suite number provided) in a DC office building. But are there any other reasons to suspect Mylan is behind this dark money?
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 Before we dig into Mylan's CEO or its potential merger or its various scandals, let's look at Mylan Pharmaceuticals' core business. Mylan is the world's second largest generic pharma company, domiciled in the Netherlands to avoid taxes. The stock is down 70% since its 2015 peak
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 Mylan (whom I suspect funds @BeatBernie2020) jacked up prices on its life-saving EpiPen, which prevents anaphylactic shock from being fatal. A generic pharma company, Mylan did not invent the medicine; they purchased the rights. @SenSanders has been a consistent $MYL critic
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders Turns out, Mylan's business is inextricably bound up with government and public policy. As a generic pharma company, they depend on things like medical patents which eliminate competition to bulk purchases of medical supplies by American schools. That's the tip of this iceberg
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders Mylan's dependence on, and fear of government is laid out in their recent linkedin post searching for a new Director of Federal Government Relations (not sure if they've filled that seat yet) as well as on their website. Could these efforts include creating @BeatBernie2020?
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders I've written here before about how pharma is dependent on the gov't; Mylan $MYL is a perfect example because they're a "generics and biosimilar" company, meaning they don't innovate drugs in-house, they modify ones with patents and buy the rights to others
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders Mylan's symbiotic relationships with regulators, Congress, and state gov'ts are perfectly unified in its CEO, Heather Bresch. Bresch is the daughter of current WV senator and former WV governor @JoeManchinWV, who has declared his opposition to #Bernie2020 and specifically #M4A
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders @JoeManchinWV CEO Heather Bresch's Wikipedia entry explains her employment with Mylan (dad got her the job). I can't know exactly how @JoeManchinWV, @MylanNews, and Mylan's in-house counsel at the same address as dark money group @BeatBernie2020 are enmeshed... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_B…
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders @JoeManchinWV @MylanNews ...but clearly, Mylan's relationships to governments are crucial to its success, and @BernieSanders probably represents their biggest threat. There's a reason the current CEO and @JoeManchinWV daughter Heather Bresch came up through Mylans' government relations division
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders @JoeManchinWV @MylanNews @BernieSanders Mylan's more routine scandals (like CEO Heather Bresch faking an MBA, getting a former employee at WVU to grant a bogus degree, leading to mass resignations there) are one thing... fiercepharma.com/pharma/think-e…
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders @JoeManchinWV @MylanNews @BernieSanders ...what I think is interesting, and potentially risky, is how Bresch steered Mylan through a series of strategic mergers which seem to have leveraged the company into an exposed situation. Now, they want to buy Pfizer's Upjohn and finance the deal with debt...
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders @JoeManchinWV @MylanNews @BernieSanders Mylan will need regulatory approval for its Upjohn merger. Trump's anti-trust policies are transparent (if he likes you, he'll let you merge). @BernieSanders would be a huge obstacle for the merger, which is to be called "Viatris" (Latin for "threeway").
So... @beatbernie2020 ?
So... @beatbernie2020 ?
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders @JoeManchinWV @MylanNews @BernieSanders There's one last detail I want to share about Mylan NV which is really only tangentially relevant to my suspicion that their in-house counsel is responsible for the creation of @BeatBernie2020, and that's the weird insiderish trading that's been going on in the last week
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders @JoeManchinWV @MylanNews @BernieSanders I can't prove that @MylanNews or @JoeManchinWV is behind @BeatBernie2020, which is pretty much the whole point of dark money. At some point I can go through Mylan's PAC activity and other legalized corruption, but in the meantime, maybe folks should ask these people about it?
@Alt_LeftAlabama @BeatBernie2020 @SenSanders @JoeManchinWV @MylanNews @BernieSanders Thanks for everyone helping this thread blow up! If the whole @Mylan/@BeatBernie2020 thing resonates, maybe check out @JoeManchinWV's primary challenger, @paulajean2020 and read this Jacobin article I forgot to link to above jacobinmag.com/2017/02/pharma…
