Tim Eyman, whose initiative campaigns have bedeviled state and local governments across Washington for decades, will no longer be allowed to have any financial control over political committees.
That’s under a judge’s ruling Wednesday that blasted him for using donor’s contributions to line his own pocket.
>> Judge rules Tim Eyman broke campaign finance laws, failed to report over $766,000 in donations
Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon also ordered Eyman to pay $2.6 million in penalties.
The ruling came in a 2017 lawsuit by Attorney General Bob Ferguson that accused Eyman of soliciting kickbacks, laundering donations and flouting campaign finance law in a long-running scheme to enrich himself.
State Attorney General Bob Ferguson released the following statement about the ruling.
“After years of Tim Eyman’s deceit, obstruction, and contempt of court, we took him to trial and held him accountable for receiving and concealing illegal kick-backs. After twenty years of violating campaign finance laws, including two previous judgments against him, Eyman’s day of reckoning has arrived.
Today’s ruling is clear — Eyman’s conduct was illegal and intentional. Today’s historic campaign finance penalty – the largest in our state ever levied against an individual — is necessary to hold him accountable for some of the most egregious campaign finance violations ever uncovered by the Washington Public Disclosure Commission and the Washington State Attorney General’s Office.”
Cox Media Group
