A secret recording caught a billionaire bribing state officials with millions of dollars in political money, funneled through a dark money group, in return for the removal of a regulator who was responsible for overseeing his companies
charlotteobserver.com/news/local/art…
charlotteobserver.com/news/local/art…
The billionaire lays out exactly what we in the transparency community have been saying for years: It's remarkably easy to bribe officials in secret if you use a 501(c)(4) that can receive unlimited, corporate contributions that don't have to be disclosed to the public.
This is is not a new phenomenon, folks. You rarely get a video like this, but the past decade has seen a string of cases where candidates and campaigns have been caught directing donors to dark money groups that serve as extensions of their campaigns.
Years ago in Nevada, a former lobbyist for the payday lending industry was running for attorney general. So he encouraged the industry to use holding companies and channel money through 501(c)(4)s to make it appear like the money did not come from payday lenders. 
In return for the industry's support, he promised payday lending executives like Kip Cashmore (his actual name) that "As AG, I will be in a position to help other AGs understand the importance of the cash advance industry"
More recently, the Greitens investigation showed deep coordination between the campaign and dark money groups, which they mused about using as a way to accept foreign money and contributions from other donors they wanted to keep secret citizensforethics.org/dark-money-gre…
These (and others like them) are just the instances we know because they were actually investigated. There are hundreds of groups like this around the country who go unchecked every election cycle, pouring millions of dollars in anonymous money into state and federal elections.
The plot thickens wral.com/tip-of-an-iceb…
"We are shutting down donations until we see some improvement at NC DOI staff" - Lindberg to his lead lobbyist, letting the mask slip and reminding the world that many major donors don't give out of a sense of patriotic duty, but to protect their bottom line
