Phil F. Anschutz

Industry: Investment¹
Primary Company: Various
Age: Born 1939 in Russell, Kansas.² ³ ⁴
Location: Denver, Colorado⁵
Estimated Worth: $12.1 billion as of July 2019, according to Forbes⁶

Background

Philip F. (Frederick) Anschutz is a U.S. businessman. He has become wealthy via a wide variety of endeavors that have included oilfields (Anschutz Exploration Co.), railroads (Southern Pacific), and telecommunications (Qwest Communications), as well as sports teams, the movie industry, and other entertainment sectors. In 2010, his holding company sold its oil and gas fields in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale and North Dakota’s Bakken Shale for roughly $3 billion.⁷

Anschutz started building his fortune in 1961, the year he graduated with a finance degree from the University of Kansas. Anschutz then worked for his father’s oil drilling company, Circle A Drilling in Wyoming. Within 10 years, Anschutz owned oil fields in Montana, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming. He began purchasing coal mines, cattle ranches, and vegetable farms, and also started a New York-based oil and metals commodity trading company. In the late 1970s, Phil Anschutz and his father discovered a billion-barrel oil deposit, which they sold to Mobil for $500 million in 1982.⁸

Philip Anschutz went on to found the company Resource Holdings. In 1988, he bought the railroad company Southern Pacific and merged another, smaller railroad that he owned into the larger company. In 1996, Anschutz sold Southern Pacific to Union Pacific for $5.4 billion, netting more than $1 billion.⁹

In 1999 Fortune magazine described Qwest Communications as “the crown jewel of [Anschutz’s] empire.” Anschutz came away from Qwest’s merger with SP Telecom with roughly $15 billion.

Philip Anschutz owns the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and one-third of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, as well as the Staples Center, in which they play. His Anschutz Entertainment Group operates concert venues around the world.¹⁰

Anschutz reportedly “shuns publicity” and has been described as a “very, very private man” as well as “deeply religious.”¹¹

Phil Anschutz has been compared to J.P. Morgan as men who both “struck it rich in a fundamentally different way: they operated across an astounding array of industries, mastering and reshaping entire economic landscapes.” View an early video interview, via the Colorado Business Hall of Fame, below:¹²

Anschutz Foundation and Koch Connections

Philip Anschutz founded the Anschutz Foundation in 1984. According to SourceWatch, the foundation has given significant funding to members of the State Policy Network, such as the Heritage Foundation, and also works with associate SPN members such as the Koch-affiliated Americans for Prosperity.¹³

Qwest Controversy

In 2006, the Qwest telecommunications firm was involved in what the Los Angeles Times termed “one of the biggest corporate accounting scandals in recent years,” with four former Qwest executives pleading guilty to federal charges including wire fraud, falsifying documents, and insider trading. The situation put attention on Anschutz, as Qwest’s founder, largest shareholder and the non-executive chairman of the board. However, he was not found guilty of any wrongdoing.¹⁴

In 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that a few years earlier, in May 2003, Anschutz reached a settlement with New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on charges that in return for giving business to investment bank Salomon Smith Barney, he had improperly received “nearly risk-free” initial public offering shares. Anschutz made $4.8 million from the IPOs. In the settlement, Anschutz agreed to give $4.4 million in contributions to New York law schools and nonprofit groups.¹⁵

While Anschutz’s company issued a statement that the settlement “very clearly reflects” no wrongdoing, Spitzer’s office held otherwise:¹⁶

“If Mr. Anschutz was as innocent in his business dealings as he claims to be, then a trial would have been the perfect venue to prove that,” said spokesman Marc Violette. “The fact that he settled this case for $4.4 million speaks volumes.”¹⁷

Funding

Political Spending

Anschutz Foundation

According to an infographic created by the pro-LGBTQ legal organization Freedom for All Americans, and circulated by the Washington Post, Phil Anschutz’s foundation gave funds to the groups Alliance Defending Freedom, National Christian Foundation, and Family Research Council between 2010 and 2013. ¹⁸

The following information is based on DeSmog’s analysis of information found in the Anschutz Foundation’s IRS Form 990 filings. Note that this is only a partial snapshot of notable examples of the foundation’s philanthropic donations by year.

View the attached spreadsheet for additional details of Anschutz Foundation donations by year (xlsx).

Recipient	Total
Alliance for Choice in Education	$3,132,400
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research	$2,842,500
Philanthropy Roundtable	$2,230,665
National Chamber Foundation	$1,700,000
Independence Institute	$1,172,000
The Heritage Foundation	$1,060,000
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research	$1,000,000
US Chamber of Commerce Foundation	$900,000
Parents Television Council	$730,000
National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation	$610,000
Washington Legal Foundation	$605,000
Center for American Values	$575,000
Common Sense Media	$555,000
Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy	$535,000
Mountain States Legal Foundation	$515,000
Americans for Prosperity Foundation	$502,500
Employment Policies Institute	$500,000
Intercollegiate Studies Institute	$330,000
The Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies	$325,000
Claremont Institute	$325,000
Media Research Center	$315,000
Landmark Legal Foundation	$310,000
Ethics and Public Policy Center	$270,000
Center for Union Facts	$270,000
Education Reform Now	$250,000
Morality in Media	$232,500
Cato Institute	$230,000
National Center for Policy Analysis	$230,000
Pacific Legal Foundation	$227,500
America’s Future Foundation	$202,500
Capital Research Center	$200,000
Job Creators Alliance	$200,000
The Fund for American Studies	$188,280
Alliance Defending Freedom	$185,000
DonorsTrust	$182,000
Tax Foundation	$166,000
Business Executives for National Security (BENS)	$150,000
FreedomWorks Foundation	$147,500
Independent Women’s Forum	$132,500
Leadership Institute	$127,500
Mercatus Center	$127,500
Bill of Rights Institute	$125,000
Institute for Justice	$125,000
American Spectator Foundation	$120,000
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs	$120,000
The Independent Institute	$117,500
Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute	$110,000
American Legislative Exchange Council	$105,000
Democracy and Media Education Foundation	$100,000
Job Creators Network	$100,000
NumbersUSA Education & Research	$100,000
Center for Security Policy	$100,000
Alternatives Pregnancy Center	$95,000
Foundation For Teaching Economics	$95,000
Beacon Center	$75,000
Center for Education Reform	$75,000
American Conservative Union Foundation	$75,000
Collegiate Network	$70,000
National Association of Scholars	$70,000
Discovery Institute	$70,000
National Christian Foundation	$65,000
Judicial Watch	$65,000
Common Sense Policy Roundtable Forum	$60,000
Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University	$57,500
Family Research Council	$55,000
Foundation for Economic Education	$52,808
StudentNewsDaily.com	$52,500
Americans for Limited Government Foundation	$50,000
Alliance Defense Fund	$50,000
Young America’s Foundation	$40,000
Free Congress Research and Education Foundation	$40,000
Hoover Institution	$35,000
Mpowered	$30,000
National Legal Center for the Public Interest	$27,500
The Steamboat Institute	$25,000
Employment Policy Foundation	$25,000
Radio America	$25,000
Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity	$20,000
Institute on Religion and Democracy	$20,000
Becket Fund for Religious Liberty	$20,000
The Philanthropic Collaborative	$17,500
Institute for American Values	$17,500
Defenders of Property Rights	$17,500
Evergreen Freedom Foundation	$15,000
Network of Enlightened Women	$15,000
American Association of Petroleum Geologists	$15,000
Americans for Prosperity	$15,000
American Majority	$15,000
Center for Education in Law and Democracy	$12,000
Thomas B Fordham Institute	$10,000
Thomas More Law Center	$10,000
Liberty Foundation of America	$10,000
CSE Freedom Works Foundation	$10,000
The Heartland Institute	$10,000
Accuracy in Media	$10,000
Citizens for a Sound Economy Education Foundation	$7,500
International Foundation for Electoral Systems	$7,500
Oklahoma Council on Economic Education	$5,000
Empower.org	$5,000
Southeastern Legal Foundation	$5,000
The National Center for Public Policy Research	$5,000
Aspen Center for Environmental Studies	$2,500
Grand Total	$27,388,653

Anschutz Foundation IRS Form 990 Filings

Phil Anschutz Political Spending

Below is a summary of Phil Anschutz’s top political spending, via campaign finance data exported from the U.S. Federal Election Commission. Note that while efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of this data, errors may have been introduced in the original finance records.

View the attached spreadsheet for a complete list of Phil Anschutz’s political spending by year (.xlsx).