Citizens for Sound Economy recruited major corporations as donors; anti-government goals; deceptive practices

Although the Kochs were the founders and early funders of the group, it soon served as a front for dozens of the country's largest corporations. Its headed denied that it was a rent-a-movement. But private records obtained by The Washington Post showed that a procession of large companies ranging from Exxon to Microsoft had made contributions to the organization after which it had mobilized public support for their agendas. Many of the companies were embroiled in fights against the government. Microsoft, for instance, was trying to stave off an antitrust suit...

The group's unorthodox practices occasionally stirred controversy. In 1990, the organization created a spin-off, Citizens for the Environment, which called acid rain and other environmental problems "myths." When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigated the matter, it discovered that the spin-off group had "no citizen membership of its own."

One insider said the main organization's membership claims were deceptive as well. "They always said they had 250,000 members," he later recalled, but when he asked if that meant they carried cards or paid dues, he was told no, it just meant they'd contributed money at one point, no matter how long ago or how small an amount. "It was intellectually dishonest," he maintains. (197)