10-28-2013
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/201...hers-network-settlement-15-million-dark-money
California Watchdog: "Koch Brothers Network" Behind $15 Million Dark-Money Donations
On Thursday, the California attorney general and the state's top election watchdog named the "Koch brothers network" of donors and dark-money nonprofits as the true source of $15 million in secret donations made last year to influence two bitterly fought ballot propositions in California.
State officials unmasked the Kochs' network as part of a settlement deal that ends a nearly year-long investigation into the source of the secret donations that flowed in California last fall.
As part of the deal, two Arizona-based nonprofits, the Koch-linked Center to Protect Patients Rights and Americans for Responsible Leadership, admitted violating state election law. The settlement mandates that the two nonprofits pay a $1 million fine to California's general fund, and the committees who received the secret donations at the heart of the case must also cut a check to the state for the amount of those donations, which totaled $15.08 million.
Here's the bottom line: A California fundraiser raised a boatload of money. He shuffled it through a network of secretly funded nonprofit groups to hide the donors' identities. And when the money finally arrived in California in time to influence the 2012 elections, the fingerprints on the money had been thoroughly scrubbed offand in the process, the operatives masterminding this scheme had broken the law.
"This is a nationwide issue," said FPPC chairwoman Ann Ravel. "These groups exploit loopholes in the law to undermine the clear purpose of the law: to give essential information to the public."
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/201...hers-network-settlement-15-million-dark-money
California Watchdog: "Koch Brothers Network" Behind $15 Million Dark-Money Donations
On Thursday, the California attorney general and the state's top election watchdog named the "Koch brothers network" of donors and dark-money nonprofits as the true source of $15 million in secret donations made last year to influence two bitterly fought ballot propositions in California.
State officials unmasked the Kochs' network as part of a settlement deal that ends a nearly year-long investigation into the source of the secret donations that flowed in California last fall.
As part of the deal, two Arizona-based nonprofits, the Koch-linked Center to Protect Patients Rights and Americans for Responsible Leadership, admitted violating state election law. The settlement mandates that the two nonprofits pay a $1 million fine to California's general fund, and the committees who received the secret donations at the heart of the case must also cut a check to the state for the amount of those donations, which totaled $15.08 million.
Here's the bottom line: A California fundraiser raised a boatload of money. He shuffled it through a network of secretly funded nonprofit groups to hide the donors' identities. And when the money finally arrived in California in time to influence the 2012 elections, the fingerprints on the money had been thoroughly scrubbed offand in the process, the operatives masterminding this scheme had broken the law.
"This is a nationwide issue," said FPPC chairwoman Ann Ravel. "These groups exploit loopholes in the law to undermine the clear purpose of the law: to give essential information to the public."
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