Two of the Netherlands’ largest companies, Philips and Ahold, donated $96,500 (€86,000) to Republican congressmen who openly disputed the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 US presidential election, NRC reported on Monday.

Altogether eight Senators and 136 members of the House of Representatives voted against validating the election result on January 6, 2021 as supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the US Capital building in Washington, leading to the deaths of six people.

In the aftermath of the attack more than 200 large companies pledged not to give campaign finance to congressmen who supported Trump’s false claim that the election had been “stolen”.

But Philips and Ahold, who were not part of the agreement, made donations to 26 of the Republican detractors over the next three years, according to a study by US legal organisation Donations and Democracy.

One of the candidates backed by Philips, Steve Scalise, told Fox News in December 2020 that 55 votes had been found “in a drawer”, an assertion that was later shown to be untrue. Philips gave Scalise $4,000 in 2023 and 2024, as part of a fundraising operation that netted him more than $3.6 million from 384 PACs.

The donations were made through Political Action Committees (PACs) under US lobbying rules that prevent corporations from giving money directly to politicians. Corporations are banned from using their own resources to fund PACs, which rely on contributions from staff members, individuals and partnerships.

However, the distribution of funds is determined by a committee that often includes senior managers. PACs can donate a maximum of $5,000 per candidate for pre-election campaigning and $5,000 for the campaign itself.

A total of eight Netherlands-registered companies were found to have donated via their US subsidiaries’ PACs. The list also includes KPMG, Aegon and Airbus. Other large Dutch companies with interests in the US, such as Heineken and chip maker ASML, were not found to have given any campaign money to the Republicans.