ProPublica Report Ties Susan Collins to Shelved FBI Bribery Probe

A ProPublica investigation published Tuesday reports that FBI agents were preparing a sweeping pay-to-play bribery inquiry touching Sen. Susan Collins of Maine before the case was abandoned, and it describes how a defense contractor convicted of illegal campaign contributions told investigators he bankrolled powerful lawmakers in exchange for federal contracts.

Collins' office rejected the contractor's claims as "outlandish," and the FBI said its review of the matter found nothing implicating the senator or her campaign. No one who worked for Collins was ever charged. The report now sits in the middle of a Senate race that could decide which party controls the chamber next year.

The Contractor, the Shell Company and the Super PAC

Federal law bars government contractors from making political contributions, and offering donations in exchange for an official act is criminal bribery. The account turns on a meeting in the final weeks of 2019 at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C., where Scott Reed, who ran the super PAC supporting Collins, asked three executives from the Hawaii defense contractor Navatek for $500,000.

The company's chief executive, Martin Kao, wanted more than a thank-you. Navatek was seeking tens of millions of dollars in additional federal work in Maine, and Kao told the fundraiser he wanted assurance that Collins would know where the money came from and that the company would get its contracts. To hide the source of the cash, the donation was routed through a shell company.

Kao sent an initial $150,000 to the Collins super PAC through that entity. Two months later, an internal company email shows, he told Navatek executives that Collins had committed to securing $32 million in naval contracts. A year before the coffee shop meeting, Collins had helped the company land a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine.

The scheme eventually caught up with Kao. A federal grand jury indicted him in 2022 for making illegal campaign contributions. No one working for Collins was charged, and her campaign later turned over the illegal donations.

Three Days of Interviews and a 50-Page Road Map

Facing years in prison, Kao decided to cooperate. Over three days at the U.S. attorney's office in Honolulu, he recounted the Corner Bakery meeting to four FBI agents and federal prosecutors and described what he said was a sprawling influence operation that reached some of the most powerful figures in Congress.

He handed agents a 50-page document naming dozens of lobbyists, congressional staffers and members of Congress. Kao and his close associates had donated nearly $900,000 to dozens of politicians, and the company he led built operations in half a dozen states supported by more than $40 million a year in federal funding.

Kao had credibility problems of his own, and building a corruption case against elected officials is difficult because the courts have narrowed what counts as bribery. Even so, agents who sifted through hundreds of thousands of seized records found material consistent with his account, and the interviews continued into late 2024.

By the end of that year, the agents believed they had enough evidence to seek approval for a sweeping bribery investigation, and they weighed using undercover operatives to gather more. Their questions to Kao focused heavily on Collins and her office.

Collins Denies Bribery Claims as FBI Cites Earlier Review

Collins' office did not address specific questions about the fundraiser's meeting, her relationship with Kao or the money she helped steer to Navatek. Annie Clark, the senator's deputy chief of staff, said the office "vigorously" denies the bribery and pay-for-play allegations and called Kao's account "outlandish." The campaign, she said, was not part of the discussions between Kao and the super PAC, and the office fully cooperated with the FBI.

"These issues were resolved in 2021 and concluded when the Collins campaign disgorged the illegal contributions that Martin Kao had made without our knowledge," Clark said.

The FBI said its agents examined claims involving Collins years earlier and found nothing. "The agency had investigated claims against Collins years ago and ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins' campaign. Any suggestion otherwise is totally false," spokesperson Ben Williamson said. He added that the administration removes agents only when they have acted unethically, undermined the mission or engaged in the weaponization of law enforcement.

Reed denied any improper contact. "I never had any communications with Senator Collins [or] her staff about Martin Kao and/or Navatek," he wrote. Emails reviewed in the reporting nonetheless suggest the donation was relayed: seven days after the super PAC deposited the check, one of Reed's subordinates asked a Navatek lobbyist for Kao's phone number so that "Senator Collins would like to call Martin to thank him."

The Inquiry Died as Washington Reshaped Its Corruption Units

The investigation never reached a courtroom. As the second Trump administration moved to end the weaponization of federal law enforcement, the specialized FBI and Justice Department teams that handled public corruption cases were dismantled, and the career attorney assigned to Kao's case moved on. The inquiry sparked by his cooperation is now closed, and the government is no longer in contact with the informant who offered a road map to how influence is bought in Washington.

Those files join a growing record of federal corruption material that has surfaced in politically charged cases. Partially redacted FBI interview records obtained in another Senate seat controversy, the Blagojevich Senate seat case, showed how quickly conversations about money and power can reach a lawmaker's office.

Whether Kao's account would ever have produced charges is an open question. What is not in dispute is that one of the most detailed accounts of pay-to-play in modern Washington will not be tested by prosecutors.

What to Watch Next in Maine

Collins is running for another term while chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee, a post she calls the most powerful in the chamber, and she has built her campaign around the federal dollars she directs to Maine. The race is among a handful that will decide Senate control.

Her Democratic opponent, Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, seized on the report, telling supporters the "jig is up," while a Collins aide called that characterization categorically false. ProPublica said the article is the first in a series drawn from its reporting.

The questions ahead are straightforward. Watch whether the reporting prompts formal inquiries from congressional oversight committees, whether the contractor's cooperation records become public, and whether an allegation-heavy national story moves a Maine race that both parties already expected to be close.