BALTIMORE _ Maryland's U.S. senators on Tuesday asked Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to review a Russian oligarch's investment into a company that manages some of the state's most critical election systems.
The request is the latest call from Maryland's top elected officials to determine if the Russian's investment in the Virginia-based company ByteGrid LLC has led to any foreign access to Maryland's systems for voter registration, online ballot delivery, unofficial election night results and other services.
In a letter to Mnuchin, Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen asked the secretary to authorize the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review the transaction between AltPoint Capital _ an investment fund whose largest investor is Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin _ and ByteGrid.
"We know that our elections are under threat from foreign cyberattacks and disinformation efforts," Cardin and Van Hollen wrote in the letter. "Our democratic process can also be manipulated through foreign investment in elections infrastructure."
Last month four FBI agents informed state officials that ByteGrid has ties to Potanin, an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
ByteGrid owns the servers that hold the data for voter registration, candidacy, election management and election night results, state elections officials said. An ownership stake in the company was purchased by AltPoint Capital Partners, whose largest investor is Potanin.
Potanin is "very close" to Putin, state officials have said. And Altpoint's managing partner, Gerald T. Banks, is a Russian millionaire who changed his name from Guerman Aliev.
State officials have no evidence that Potanin or Banks had done anything untoward.
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch, both Democrats, have asked Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh to investigate the contract.
They also asked U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to direct the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications to provide the state with technical assistance to evaluate the network used by the State Board of Elections, including auditing the integrity of the network.
And state election officials were auditing existing data, reviewing their defenses and implementing any changes to secure the systems before November's general election.
Van Hollen said in an interview that he and Cardin believe the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, has the authority to review the transaction and that if it "hasn't reviewed this already that they immediately take action to protect the integrity of Maryland's elections."
"CFIUS has the power to block certain investments if they put our security at risk," Van Hollen said.
He and Cardin write in their letter that the committee can not only block a foreign investment that "poses a threat to national security" but that it can also reverse an investment if the companies did not notify it of a transaction that is later determined to be a threat.
Annie Eissler, chief marketing officer for ByteGrid, has told Maryland officials that the company's investors "have no involvement or control in company operations."
Eissler said this week that she does not believe ByteGrid was "obligated to provide notice to CFIUS of the AltPoint Capital Partners investment."
Cardin and Van Hollen said they want the committee to conduct such a review.
"If either AltPoint or ByteGrid did not file a notice with CFIUS, the Committee has the ability to look back at any completed transaction that results in control and threatens national security and takes steps to address the national security threat, including requiring divestment," the letter states.
Both senators sit on committees that oversee CFIUS, which Mnuchin chairs. According to the U.S. Treasury Department's website, CFIUS is "an interagency committee authorized to review transactions that could result in control of a U.S. business by a foreign person in order to determine the effect of such transactions on the national security of the United States."
Frosh said he was pleased to learn that Cardin and Van Hollen were making the request.
"It's an area that needs a lot more attention," Frosh said.
The Democratic attorney general said he and legislative leaders are discussing "what Maryland might do independently of federal requirements" to secure election systems, and that he expects those discussions to emerge during the 2019 General Assembly session.
Frosh said his office's investigation into Potanin's stake in ByteGrid is ongoing and that he is working with state election officials and federal agencies "to ensure we're taking proper steps to make sure the election is secure, to make sure that we're going to get the right election results without interference."
The Democratic senators write that an element of the National Defense Authorization Act that Congress recently approved expands CFIUS's review power beyond transactions that result in foreign control of a U.S. company. Under the act, which President Donald Trump has not yet signed into law, the committee can also review "other investments" by foreigners in U.S. firms involved in "critical infrastructure."
That includes "election infrastructure," the letter states.
The senators ask that the foreign investment committee assure them that an investigation of AltPoint Capital's stake in ByteGrid has either taken place or is currently underway. If not, they ask Mnuchin to lead such a review "to address concerns that Mr. Potanin's relationship with the Russian Government may threaten Maryland's and America's election infrastructure and undermine the integrity of our elections."
