Colorado Officials Stalled Dark Money Investigations for Three Years While Same Network Faces Federal Criminal Probe
Federal prosecutors pursuing the “Riot Inc.” network for potential terrorism support and tax fraud are examining organizations that spent $15.8 million in Colorado between 2018 and 2020—the same entities Secretary of State Jena Griswold promised to investigate in January 2022 but has yet to resolve. Governor Jared Polis received $900,000 from the network. Attorney General Phil Weiser got $600,000. Both ran on platforms opposing dark money influence in Colorado elections.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund and North Fund are core components of the Arabella Advisors network now under FBI Director Kash Patel’s January 8 nationwide investigation. These organizations pumped $13 million into Colorado ballot initiatives and another $2.4 million into Democratic legislative races during the 2018 and 2020 election cycles. Neither organization registered as issue committees or independent expenditure committees. Colorado law requires registration when political activity becomes a major organizational purpose. Campaign finance complaints filed in December 2021 alleged both groups violated state disclosure requirements by spending millions on Colorado ballot measures without revealing their donors.
Griswold’s office announced January 6, 2022 that full investigations were warranted. Her initial findings stated the complaints alleged “facts which, if proven, could support a finding that Respondent violated Colorado campaign finance laws.” Three years later, no public resolution has emerged. The secretary’s office has not disclosed whether investigations remain active, were dropped, or resulted in any enforcement action. Griswold did not respond to requests for comment from multiple Colorado news outlets in 2022 and has remained silent on the investigations’ status since.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers filed suit in November 2025 against these same organizations for funneling Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss’s money through the Arabella network to influence ballot initiatives. Nebraska law bars foreign nationals from election spending. Wyss donated $245 million to Sixteen Thirty Fund and New Venture Fund since 2016. Those same millions flowed into Colorado campaigns while state officials who benefited from the spending now control enforcement.
Colorado authorities treated conservative organizations differently. Unite for Colorado, a right-leaning nonprofit that spent approximately $3.3 million on 2020 state races and ballot measures, was fined $40,000 by an administrative law judge in August 2021 and ordered to disclose its donors for failing to register as an issue committee. The ruling prompted the December 2021 complaints against Sixteen Thirty and North Fund, which had spent four times more than Unite for Colorado without facing any enforcement action.
Charles Heatherly, former policy director for Colorado Senate Republicans who filed the North Fund complaint, noted he learned of the group’s activities only after the Unite decision. North Fund spent $7.2 million across six 2019-2020 ballot measures. This included $4.4 million for the successful Proposition 118 paid family leave initiative and $1.1 million against the defeated Proposition 115 abortion restriction. The complaint argued this demonstrated political activity as a major organizational purpose requiring issue committee registration. Cory Gaines, who filed the Sixteen Thirty complaint, documented $5.8 million in ballot measure contributions and another $1.5 million to independent expenditure committees supporting Democratic legislative candidates.
Both organizations claimed political spending represented less than half their total expenditures, maintaining 501(c)(4) status without disclosure requirements. The North Fund told Montana authorities, which dismissed a similar complaint in March 2022, that only 30 percent of expenditures supported ballot measures. But Colorado’s threshold for issue committee registration depends not on percentage of budget but on whether supporting or opposing ballot measures becomes a major organizational purpose. Campaign finance reports filed with Griswold’s office showed both groups made political spending in Colorado a sustained, multi-million-dollar priority across multiple election cycles.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund’s Colorado activities extended beyond ballot measures. The organization gave $900,000 to Justice Colorado, which spent $2.3 million supporting Polis’s gubernatorial campaign. Weiser’s race received $600,000 directly from Sixteen Thirty during his 2018 campaign for attorney general against 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler. Weiser campaigned on cracking down on dark money. Complete Colorado reported Weiser never publicly called on Justice Colorado or Sixteen Thirty to disclose donors. He received more than half a million dollars in undisclosed contributions.
Griswold promised to address anonymous political spending when she ran for secretary of state in 2018. She told the Colorado Sun in 2019 that federal courts ruled against disclosure requirements for ballot initiatives, adding “I disagree.” Her disagreement produced no enforcement action against organizations that outspent all other out-of-state groups on Colorado ballot measures in 2020.
The Tides Center, part of the broader San Francisco-based network that includes Tides Foundation and operates parallel to Arabella’s structure, contributed between $315,000 and $402,756 to the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund supporting Proposition 114 gray wolf reintroduction. Tides Center was the single largest donor to the successful 2020 ballot initiative. The Colorado Department of Higher Education paid Tides Center $500 in October 2018 to deliver a lecture at History Colorado titled “A Call to Restore the Grey Wolf to Colorado.” State taxpayers funded an advocacy presentation by an organization that would become the wolf campaign’s primary financial backer. Tides Center contributed $400,000 between July 2019 and September 2020.
The wolf initiative passed with 50.4 percent support, the narrowest margin of any successful 2020 Colorado ballot measure. Western Slope counties where wolves would be released voted overwhelmingly against the measure. Denver metro voters, who would face no direct impact from wolf presence, provided the margin of victory. The pattern repeated across 2020 ballot initiatives. Out-of-state dark money groups funded by undisclosed donors, including a Swiss billionaire, spent millions to pass measures affecting rural Colorado communities. Front Range urban voters decided outcomes.
The Hopewell Fund, another Arabella network entity named in Nebraska’s November 2025 lawsuit, served as incubator for States Newsroom, the fiscal sponsor of Colorado Newsline. The progressive outlet’s funding comes from an organization accused of using foreign money to influence elections. Colorado Newsline covers state politics without disclosing this financial relationship.
Ohio confronted the foreign funding issue directly. Sixteen Thirty Fund spent more than $14 million bankrolling 2023 ballot campaigns. Governor Mike DeWine called a special legislative session in May 2025 and lawmakers enacted a foreign funding ban. Sixteen Thirty Fund immediately stopped all spending in Ohio—a tacit admission that foreign money tainted its operations. Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee, and Wyoming passed similar bans in 2025. Colorado has not.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s December 4 memorandum directing federal prosecutors to pursue “exhaustive investigation to map full networks of participants, organizers, and funders” in the Riot Inc network places the Arabella organizations at the center of a criminal investigation examining material support for terrorism, tax fraud, and Foreign Agents Registration Act violations. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer launched a separate investigation November 19 into Sixteen Thirty Fund’s “Chorus Program” for allegedly evading campaign finance laws.
The IRS is reviewing tax-exempt status for nonprofits accused of misusing charitable funds for politics. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged to leverage IRS investigative tools to map financial networks. Republican lawmakers are pushing audits of Arabella and Tides entities. The organizations that Colorado officials promised to hold accountable are now facing federal criminal prosecution for activities including the $15.8 million they spent influencing Colorado elections.
Griswold enforced campaign finance laws against Unite for Colorado within twelve months. Three years after announcing investigations into organizations that spent four times more, her office has produced no public findings, no enforcement action, and no explanation. The difference between outcomes may be explained by examining who benefited from the spending. Unite for Colorado supported Republican candidates. Sixteen Thirty and North Fund elected a governor and attorney general who now control the state apparatus that could force donor disclosure and levy penalties for campaign finance violations.
Nebraska’s attorney general is pursuing these organizations through civil litigation. Federal prosecutors are building criminal cases examining the same financial networks. Colorado’s top election official, who received support from groups that spent millions on Democratic causes, has not resolved investigations for three years. The documentary evidence of Colorado campaign finance violations exists in Secretary of State records, TRACER filings, and complaint documents filed in Griswold’s office. Federal authorities are pursuing the same organizations for more serious crimes.
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