Attorney General’s Office settles with Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties
OLYMPIA, WA – November 2, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — The Attorney General’s Office today settled a lawsuit against the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBA-K&S) for violating the state’s campaign finance disclosure law.
“This settlement represents roughly two years of work by our office to hold MBA-K&S accountable, preserves the value of the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws and avoids the additional risk and expense to taxpayers of taking this case to trial,” said Attorney General Rob McKenna.
The MBA-K&S was fined $300,000 under the terms of the judgment filed in Thurston County Superior Court today — the largest such penalty in a case involving failure to report campaign contributions and expenditures. The judgment requires MBA-K&S to pay $150,000 in fines and an additional $40,000 in attorney fees.
As is common in these types of cases, the remaining $150,000 fine is suspended. MBA-K&S will immediately owe the suspended amount if it is found to have committed any new campaign law violations between now and Dec. 31, 2016.
As part of the case, the MBA-K&S also filed reports with the Public Disclosure Commission documenting their political contributions and expenditures since 2000.
Contact: Janelle Guthrie, APR, Attorney General’s Office, 360-584-3046
