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FPPC Files Suit Against SoCal Law Firm for Giving Money to Anti-Arena GroupSACRAMENTO—

For fans passionately in favor of having the Kings play in an arena at this proposed site, this may all be about if the old owners are trying to stop progress.

But for the folks behind this lawsuit, it’s about making sure no one’s ignoring state law – or the rights of voters.

“State law requires that people who pay for a campaign activity disclose who’s paying for it to the public. The public has a right to know. Every day they don’t know and there’s signature gathering going on there’s public harm, so there’s an urgency to it,” said Gary Winuk with the Fair Political Practices Commission.

The suit filed by the Fair Political Practices Commission alleges that no source disclosure was made about a June payment of $80,000 for paid signature gatherers working for Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork. John Hyde, a spokesman with STOP, told FOX40 that the organization never received those funds.

The southern California law firm for the old team owners, the Maloof family, is the agency the payment came through and since the firm had not reported the source of the money.

The FPPC and arena hopefuls who made the complaint to them are looking for a judge to change that.

“In politics, when you want to keep things a secret, there’s a reason and it’s usually not a good one. It’s been obvious that they’ve gone to great lengths to make it that no one knows who’s really behind the STOP campaign, and today’s a big step toward finding that solution,” said Joshua Woods with DowntownArena.org.

The FPPC is pushing for a hearing in this case as soon as Monday.

STOP’s volunteer signature collectors have gathered half of their 22,000-signature goal, the organization said this week.