California’s Fair Political Practices Commission forced a mysterious $11 million donor to two ballot measures to reveal its secret funding sources today, and the result showed how most of these independent expenditure groups work, mostly through money laundering:

An important ruling earlier this month appeared to pave the way for independent expenditure campaigns to have to declare their donors. However, the US Chamber of Commerce, one of the biggest groups affected by this, believes they have found a way around it that would keep their donors secret.

A federal appeals court panel declined to stay a ruling on donor disclosure for so-called “electioneering” advertising, which could lead to the largest independent expenditure campaigns in America having to reveal their donor networks for the 2012 cycle. Conservative groups wanted to stay the ruling pending appeal, which won’t be heard until September.