Chris Hansen Ordered To Pay $50,000 For Concealing Donations To STOP Campaign
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Chris Hansen, the hedge fund investor who tried to move the Sacramento Kings to Seattle, will have to hand $50,000 over to the state of California.
Hansen is settling with the Fair Political Practices Commission as he tried to hide his $100,000 contribution to the local anti-arena group by going through a law firm in southern California. He has apologized.
State law mandates campaign contribution sources be made public, but Hansen only came forward once pressure was put on the law firm to reveal the donor.
Hansen failed to topple Sacramento in his bid for the Kings, so he helped fund the anti-arena group in hopes he could stall construction on the arena and the NBA would then hand over the franchise to Seattle.
Since it is a state violation, the money will go into the general fund.
Hansen also said he didn't intend for the money he spent on the STOP campaign to be used to gather signatures.
In a statement posted on www.sonicsarena.com, Hansen said: "I would also like to highlight that I will take steps to prevent any signatures collected by GoCo from being submitted to the opposition. As it was never my intent to directly fund signature gathering efforts, I completely agree with the numerous Kings fans who have taken the time to write me and suggest this course of action."
The firm Loeb & Loeb will not be part of settlement as they acted as an agent for Chris Hansen, according to the FPPC.
