ProPublica

Journalism in the Public Interest

How Dark Money Flows Through the Koch Network

Update: January 28, 2015 | This week, the Koch Brothers announced that they will inject nearly $900 million into the 2016 elections. In this interactive graphic, originally published in February 2014, we explored how money flows through the Koch's tangled web.

Fundraising by the libertarian billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch supports a tangle of nonprofits, sometimes referred to as the Kochtopus, all aimed at advancing conservative causes. Two groups, the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce and TC4 Trust, handed out almost $264 million from mid-2011 to October 2012 to 30 other nonprofits. Almost half of that went to the Center to Protect Patient Rights, which then funneled millions to a constellation of dark money groups, some of which also received money from Freedom Partners and TC4 Trust. Groups that got significant amounts of money from the Center, Freedom Partners and TC4 Trust reported political spending of more than $75 million in 2012. Much of the money flowed through what are known as “disregarded entities” — limited liability companies, or LLCs, that some of the groups have set up. TC4 Trust has folded and the Center to Protect Patient Rights no longer plays a central role in the Koch network, but many of these groups will be active in the 2014 election. | Related story »

 
Group Has Disregarded Entity
  • Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce
  • TC4 Trust
  • Center to Protect Patient Rights
  • Americans for Prosperity
  • American Future Fund
  • Americans for Job Security
  • Americans for Responsible Leadership
  • EvangChr4 Trust
Click a group to see grants it has given and received.
Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce
TC4 Trust
 
 
Center to Protect Patient Rights
Americans for Prosperity
American Future Fund
Americans for Job Security
Americans for Responsible Leadership
EvangChr4 Trust