A nonprofit linked to the conservative Koch organization that spent more than $20 million to elect Republican congressional candidates must disclose its donors, according to a settlement with the Federal Election Commission.
The now-defunct Americans for Job Security (AJS), said in a settlement that it should have registered as a regulated political action committee beginning in 2010 because it spent most of its money to influence elections. Such PACS must disclose their contributors unlike nonprofits that say they are mainly interested in policy issues rather than political campaigns.
The watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), disclosed the settlement Sept. 19, following a years-long legal battle to have a federal district court in Washington, D.C., force the FEC to take enforcement action. The case is one of several filed by CREW pressing the commission to act against what it calls “dark money groups.”