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{{Show badges| Koch Exposed}}[[File:Sean_noble.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Sean Noble]]'''Sean Noble''' is the Executive Director/President of [[American Encore]], formerly known as the [[Center to Protect Patient Rights|Center to Protect Patient Rights]] (CPPR), a 501(c)4 conduit for the Koch donors network. ''The New York Times'' has described the CPPR as "one of the largest political nonprofits in the country, serving as a conduit for tens of millions of dollars in political spending, much of it raised by the Kochs and their political operation."<ref>Nicholas Confessore, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/us/politics/group-linked-to-kochs-admits-to-campaign-finance-violations.html?ref=sunday Group Linked to Kochs Admits to Campaign Finance Violations]," ''New York Times'', October 24, 2013. Accessed June 11, 2014.</ref>
The CPPR funneled more than $182 million in undisclosed donations to right-wing advocacy groups from 2009 to 2012, including [[Americans for Prosperity]] and the [[American Future Fund]].<ref>Patrick O'Connor, "[http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/03/25/sen-franken-draws-attack-ad-from-american-encore/ Sen. Franken Draws Attack Ad From American Encore]," Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2014.</ref> The Washington Post described it as a "major cash turnstile for groups on the right during the past two election cycles," because it received large amounts of money from [[Freedom Partners]] and [[TC4 Trust]] as part of the $400 million [[Koch brothers|Koch]] political network.<ref>Matea Gold, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-political-network-built-to-shield-donors-raised-400-million-in-2012-elections/2014/01/05/9e7cfd9a-719b-11e3-9389-09ef9944065e_story.html Koch-backed political coalition, designed to shield donors, raised $400 million in 2012]," Washington Post, January 5, 2014.</ref>
Under Noble's presidency, the CPPR was involved in an $11 million campaign finance money laundering scheme during the 2012 elections in California,<ref name="Campaign Money Laundering Scheme">Andy Kroll, [http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/11/california-americans-responsible-leadership-donation-jerry-brown Campaign Money Laundering Scheme revealed, kind of], ''Mother Jones'', November 5, 2012.</ref> eventually reaching a settlement with the California Attorney General's Office in which it agreed to pay a $500,000 fine.<ref name="AG">Office of the Attorney General, State of California Department of Justice, "[http://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-kamala-d-harris-announces-1-million-civil-settlement-campaign Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Announces $1 Million Civil Settlement for Campaign Finance Violations, Calls for Legislative Reform]," press release, October 24, 2013. Accessed June 11, 2014.</ref>
According to a 2014 ''ProPublica '' report, the scandal damaged Noble: "Noble appears to have lost his central position in the Koch empire, undone by poor election results and a California investigation that shined an unwelcome light on some of the Center’s inner workings."<ref name="dark money man">Kim Barker and Theodoric Meyer, "[http://www.propublica.org/article/the-dark-money-man-how-sean-noble-moved-the-kochs-cash-into-politics-and-ma The Dark Money Man: How Sean Noble Moved the Kochs’ Cash into Politics and Made Millions]," ''ProPublica'', February 14, 2014.</ref>
Prior to 2009, Noble was a Congressional aide and then GOP consultant who served as the Chief of Staff for Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) for over a decade.<ref>[http://dc-london.com/ DC London homepage], accessed June 3, 2013.</ref> [[File:Sean_noble.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Sean Noble]]
Noble also maintains a personal blog, [http://noblethinking.com Noble Thinking], where he writes mainly about politics.
==Ties to the Koch Brothers==
Noble has been cited as a "Koch operative," who has participated in annual Koch donor meetings, speaking on issues such as voter attitudes and electoral mapping of upcoming elections.<ref name="Kochs brothers' plan for 2012: raise $88 million">Kenneth Vogel and Ben Smith, "[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49303_Page4.html Koch Brothers' plan for 2012: raise $88 million]," ''Politico'', Accessed June 4, 2013.</ref> [[Koch Industries]] spokesman [[Rob Tappan]] told ''ProPublica '' in 2014 that Noble "was a consultant for Koch in the past and attended Koch seminars."<ref name="dark money man"/>
Some have suggested that Noble may have come into contact with the Koch brothers through consulting work for Shadegg donor [[Randy Kendrick]], who sits on the board of the [[Goldwater Institute]] and is reportedly "close to the Koch brothers."<ref name="dark money man"/> While Noble has declined to say who hired him as the executive director for the CPPR when it was founded in 2009, by 2010 he was deeply involved in the [[Koch network]], ''ProPublica '' reported::One national conservative operative said he heard about Noble and the Center in conversations in early 2010 about who was doing what that year. “They were going to be the primary vehicle for the Koch money, for the Koch network,” the operative told ''ProPublica''.<ref name="dark money man"/>
===Role in 2012 California Campaign Spending Scandal===
The Center to Protect Patient Rights and its affiliated organizations played important roles in the Koch network's 2012 election spending, and according to ''ProPublica '' "Noble was a key player in expanding the network’s complicated web of nonprofits and limited liability companies."<ref name="dark money man"/> Writing about the [[American_Encore#.22Campaign_Money_Laundering.22_Investigation|California "dark money" campaign finance scheme]], ''The Washington Post'' noted Noble's central role in helping Republican strategist Tony Russo pay for issue ads without disclosing donor names:
:"[Russo] turned for help to Sean Noble, a GOP operative plugged into a national network of conservative groups. The two agreed to a money swap: Russo sent money to an Arizona group that Noble ran, in the hopes that Noble would get other organizations to send similar amounts back into California, masking the original donors.
===Participation in Koch summits===
Noble has participated in a number of the [[Koch network]]'s semiannual summit meetings. In 2010, Noble sat on a panel with [[Americans for Prosperity]] director [[Art Pope]], a former right-wing legislator and founder of right-wing [[John Locke Foundation]]; GOP operative [[Jim Ellis]], who was [http://news.findlaw.com/nytimes/docs/delay/delay92805ind.html indicted] in 2005 for an alleged scheme to use corporate political donations illegally to support candidates; and [[Ed Gillespie]] who co-founded [[Crossroads GPS]] with [[Karl Rove]].<ref name="Kochs brothers' plan for 2012: raise $88 million"/> Also in 2010, Noble presented a panel entitled "Mobilizing Citizens for November" with fellow panelists: Karl Crow of [[Themis]], a [[Koch Industries]]-backed voter database; Mark Mix of the [National Right to Work Committee], an anti-union legal defense networkand policy shop; and [[Timothy R. Phillips|Tim Phillips]], president of [[Americans for Prosperity]] which was founded by [[David Koch]] and [[Richard Fink]]<ref name="Agenda and Invitation to Koch Summit">[http://images2.americanprogressaction.org/ThinkProgress/secretkochmeeting.pdf Agenda and Invitation to Koch Summit], Accessed June 4, 2013</ref> The topic of their panel was summarized as a "strategic plan" to back leaders and voters for a new administration that is committed to liberty and prosperity.
In addition, Noble was listed as a speaker for the 2011 Koch Summit in Rancho Mirage, California.
:"I was involved in politics at a very young age. As a 10 yr-old in 1980, my mom sat me down with a phone list and told me to “call these people and tell them to vote for Ronald Reagan.” It was all the Republicans in Navajo County in Arizona - and it took me less than an hour because there were so few Republicans."<ref>Lisa De Pasquale, "[http://townhall.com/columnists/lisadepasquale/2014/05/30/de-pasquales-dozen-with-sean-noble-of-american-encore-n1844512 De Pasquale's Dozen With Sean Noble Of American Encore]," ''TownHall.com'', May 30, 2014. Accessed June 11, 2014.</ref>
Since his youth in small-town Arizona, Noble has favored far-right ideas, according to ''ProPublica'', and he joined conservative circles once he went to DC:
:"In 1994, when he was 24, Noble attended Rush Limbaugh’s freshman orientation in Baltimore for the 73 Republican members of Congress who had gained office in the so-called Republican Revolution. When he was 37, Noble was among the 2,200 mourners at William F. Buckley’s funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan."<ref name="dark money man"/>
==High Pay for Nonprofit Work==
According to a ''ProPublica '' report, "One of the biggest beneficiaries of the Koch network’s money was Sean Noble himself...The Center paid three firms owned by Noble almost $24 million for consulting and other services in 2012—or more than $1 of every $6 it spent."<ref name="dark money man"/>
In his position as Chief of Staff to Congressman Shadegg in 2008, Noble earned $87,000 a year. But when he transitioned into his role in the nonprofit arena in 2009, Noble bought a rowhouse on Capitol Hill and an eight-bedroom home in Utah, amounting to a value of over one million dollars.<ref name="Secret Political Cash">Alison Fitzgerald and Jonathan D. Salant, [http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-14/secret-political-cash-moves-through-nonprofit-daisy-chain#p2 Secret Political Cash Moves Through Nonprofit Daisy Chain], ''BloombergBusinesweek'', October 15, 2012.</ref> Court records show that he made over $2.3 million in 2011.<ref>Kim Barker and Theodoric Meyer, "[http://www.propublica.org/article/the-dark-money-man-how-sean-noble-moved-the-kochs-cash-into-politics-and-ma The Dark Money Man: How Sean Noble Moved the Kochs’ Cash into Politics and Made Millions]," ''ProPublica'', February 14, 2014.</ref>
As the President and Executive Director of [[Center to Protect Patient Rights|CPPR]] in 2009<ref name="CPPR 2009 IRS 990">[http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2009/264/683/2009-264683543-06990927-9O.pdf IRS reported compensation to Noble in 2009], ''2009 IRS 990 for CPPR'', accessed June 6, 2013.</ref> , 2010<ref name="CPPR 2010 IRS 990">[http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2010/264/683/2010-264683543-07cd3457-9O.pdf IRS reported compensation to Noble in 2010], ''2010 IRS 990 for CPPR'', accessed June 6, 2013.</ref> and 2011<ref name="CPPR 2011 IRS 990">[http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2011/264/683/2011-264683543-08dcc3a2-9O.pdf IRS reported compensation to Noble in 2011], ''2011 IRS 990 for CPPR'', accessed June 6, 2013.</ref>, despite working a reported 40 hours a week, Noble apparently received $0 in compensation from CPPR, according to the organization's tax filings. Instead, CPPR paid out $190,000 to Noble & Associates, listing Sean Noble as the interested person receiving those funds in 2009 for Management and Fundraising services<ref name="CPPR 2009 IRS 990"/>. It also paid $340,000 to Noble & Associates for Management Services in 2010<ref name="CPPR 2010 IRS 990"/>, and in 2011 paid $477,531 to Noble & Associates for consulting and an additional $2,645,000 to D.C. London, Inc., the consulting firm Noble founded.<ref name="CPPR 2011 IRS 990"/>
