Watch Out Stealth Lobbyists

Christopher DeLacy is a Partner in the Washington D.C. office.

The oft discussed and long-anticipated unregistered federal lobbyist investigation may be occurring as we speak. The recently released 2014 first quarter report of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) disclosed that one "entity" had been referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia for "failure to register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act."

De-registration movement

Ever since the lobbyist de-registration craze began, set-off by the tougher Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) penalties contained in the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA) and the Obama-Biden 2008 campaign and later Obama Administration restrictions on registered lobbyists, there has been speculation that a large number of individuals were lobbying in Washington without registering under the LDA. Of course, unregistered lobbyists most likely have existed since enactment of the LDA in 1995,