Front organization
[4][5] Another airline allegedly involved in intelligence operations was Russian Aeroflot that worked in a close coordination with KGB, SVR and GRU.
People whose loyalty was questioned were drugged and delivered unconscious by Aeroflot planes, assisted by the company KGB personnel, according to former GRU officer Victor Suvorov.
[7] In the 1980s and 1990s, specimens of deadly bacteria and viruses stolen from Western laboratories were delivered by Aeroflot to support the Russian program of biological weapons.
The FBI has acknowledged using at least thirteen front companies to conceal their use of aircraft to observe criminal activity in the United States, including:[9][10] Many organized crime operations have substantial legitimate businesses, such as licensed gambling houses, building construction companies, hair salons and karaoke bars, engineering firms, restaurants and bars, billiard clubs, trash hauling services, or dock loading enterprises.
[16] In the early 2000s, the Black Mafia Family established the Atlanta-based record label BMF Entertainment as a front company to launder funds that were generated from the sale of cocaine.
Heredia Boxing Management alleges that MTK Global was established as a front company to launder funds made from drug trafficking.
[26][27] Time identified several other fronts for Scientology, including: the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), The Way to Happiness Foundation, Applied Scholastics, the Concerned Businessmen's Association of America, and HealthMed Clinic.
South Africa's apartheid-era government used numerous front organizations to influence world opinion and to undertake extra-judicial activities and the killing of anti-apartheid activists; these included[30] the following: Communist parties (especially Marxist-Leninist ones) have sometimes used front organizations to attract support from those (sometimes called "fellow travellers") who do not fully agree with the party's ideology but agree with certain aspects of it.
The party was established to take advantage of electoral fusion laws in New York State that allow candidates to run on multiple ballot lines and to count all of their votes together.
The Liberal Democratic leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, proved to be an effective media performer[43] and gained 8% of votes during the 1991 presidential elections.
The united front is a political strategy and network of groups and key individuals that are influenced or controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and used to advance its interests.
[46] Under Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, the united front and its targets of influence have expanded in size and scope.
[51][52] Banned paramilitary organizations sometimes use front groups to achieve a public face with which to raise funds, negotiate with opposition parties, recruit, and spread propaganda.
The parties may or may not be front organizations in the narrow sense (they have varying degrees of autonomy, and the relationships are usually something of an open secret) but are widely considered to be so, especially by their political opponents.
Examples are the relationship between the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin in 1980s Ireland or between the Basque groups ETA (paramilitary) and Batasuna (party) in Spain.
Some pharmaceutical companies set up "patients' groups" as front organizations that pressure healthcare providers and legislators to adopt their products.
For example, Biogen set up a campaign called Action for Access, which also claimed it was an independent organization and the voice of multiple sclerosis sufferers.
Over the past 15 years, increasing concerns about obesity have caused Coca-Cola to experience pressure from social movement activists to reduce the sugar content in its drinks.
Because their names suggest neutrality, they can present the commercial strategies of the corporations which sponsor them in a way which appears to be objective sociological or economical research rather than political lobbying.
[59] Astroturfing, a wordplay based on "grassroots" efforts, is an American term used pejoratively to describe formal public relations projects which try to create the impression of a groundswell of spontaneous popular response to a politician, product, service, or event.
In recent years, organizations of plaintiffs' attorneys have established front groups such as Victims and Families United to oppose tort reform.
