L.A. Now Live: California cracks down on ‘dark money’ in politics

Join us at 9 a.m. when we discuss campaign financing in California with Times reporter Chris Megerian.

State officials are imposing a record $16 million in penalties on secretive political groups that funneled money into initiative campaigns in 2012, ending a yearlong investigation that showed gaps in state disclosure laws.

Two campaign committees in California are being ordered to pay a total of $15 million to the state, a sum equivalent to the donations they received, which regulators said were improperly reported. Two Arizona nonprofits, one linked to billionaire Republican donors Charles and David Koch, will pay a combined $1-million fine as part of a settlement.

The nonprofits are not being required to reveal their donors’ identities, even though disclosure was at the root of the investigation. Under existing campaign finance laws, the state cannot force the groups to release the names, officials said.

The controversial donations in California last year bankrolled two of the biggest conservative election causes: derailing Gov. Jerry Brown‘s ultimately successful tax hike and supporting an unsuccessful ballot measure intended to limit unions’ political power.

Only a haphazardly redacted list of names, uncovered by state officials through their investigation, provides clues to some of the original donors’ identities.