Previously on Real Koch Facts, we’ve likened the flow of money between the organizations in the Koch brothers’ political network to an elaborate shell game, where cash is covertly shuttled between dozens of nonprofits, holding companies and “disregarded entities.” A new report from the Center for Public Integrity further confirms that the so-called “Kochtopus” is as deliberately opaque as it is multi-tentacled. CPI outlines the activities of American Commitment, a “social welfare” nonprofit that received the bulk of its funding from 2011-2013 from three Koch-backed groups and is currently advocating against enhanced IRS disclosure rules for organizations of its kind.
According to CPI, American Commitment received 87 percent of its 2011-2013 funding — in other words, millions of dollars — from the Koch brothers’ “secret bank,” Freedom Partners Action Fund, the Koch-backed Center to Protect Patient Rights, and Free Enterprise America. Keep in mind that American Commitment did not have to disclose these Koch donations, but rather, CPI unearthed these donations in the tax returns filed by the donor organizations; the IRS requires nonprofits to disclose grants made to other organizations. The CPI report fully details the utter obfuscation involved, but at its core, these maneuvers allow organizations to avoid disclosing their donors by funneling money to a “social welfare” group that can indulge in both donor anonymity and support candidates.
That’s not even the worst of it. As CPI notes, American Commitment “has vigorously opposed [IRS] efforts to force donor disclosure on social welfare nonprofit groups,” likely because its political activities mean there’s a high likelihood the group would be impacted by the proposed rules. Given the number of nonprofits within the Kochtopus, it follows that the ever-opaque Koch network is very likely helping to fund American Commitment’s vocal opposition to the new IRS transparency rules.
Although the funding shell game is a hallmark of the Koch network, they certainly aren’t the only ultra-wealthy conservative benefactors who partake in it. The Conservative Transparency database uses public tax filings to help track the dark money that flows between conservative donors, organizations, and candidates.