This is not about grifting. Its about infighting between party factions especially after the Gaza war, with some factions trying to use this to wipe out DSA who they always disliked for ideological reasons (shades of Corbyn's Labour).
For the NY chapter which is also in financial trouble, DSA spent money on some candidates, but NYS rules require some
paperwork for non-parties before they can do that and they hadnt filed that paperwork. According to DSA they followed the guidelines by the Board of Elections - I have no idea if they did, but its entirely plausible for anybody who knows how NY is run. At worst, its sloppy paperhandling by an understaffed organization, but the fines were seven times their cash reserves.
I have no doubt that some who hopped on the DSA bandwagon were grifters, but thats not what this is about.Maybe there are some cases that are actual grifting but thats not where we are at.
