OLYMPIA – Attorney General Bob Ferguson went to court Thursday to force Tim Eyman to hand over financial records for an investigation into whether the initiative promoter illegally moved money among two campaigns in 2012 and kept some for himself in the process.

Ferguson filed petitions in superior courts in Snohomish and Thurston counties to enforce subpoenas for tax records, bank receipts and correspondences from Eyman, the political committees he controls and the signature-gathering firm Citizen Solutions that was involved in the two campaigns.

Ferguson obtained the subpoenas in November and had receive only a “smattering” of heavily redacted documents in the ensuing months, according to a press release from his office. Eyman’s lawyer indicated he would seek court protection of materials considered privileged but never did so, the release stated.

“Tim Eyman and Citizen Solutions refuse to cooperate with my investigation. I will not accept that,” Ferguson said in a statement.

Mark Lamb, the Bothell attorney representing Eyman, said in an email that he did not turn over his client’s personal tax returns because he did not want them to become public records.

Lamb said he did invite the attorney general to his office to review those documents but was turned down.

“The State has been investigating my clients for four years and has filed no charges. The AG has the right to review Mr. Eyman’s tax returns but I do not believe his returns should be made public documents available to everyone,” Lamb said. “On this principle of personal privacy, I feel it necessary to litigate this matter.”

Thursday’s actions are the latest turn of the legal wheel that began with a complaint filed in April 2012 alleging Eyman violated state election laws. He’s accused of improperly using money raised in support of Initiative 1185 on the gathering of signatures for Initiative 517.

I-1185, which required any tax increase be passed by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, was approved by voters in November 2012. It has since been struck down by the state Supreme Court.

I-517, meanwhile, proposed sweeping changes to the state’s initiative and referendum process. Eddie Agazarm, a co-founder of Citizen Solutions, was its chief backer. Voters turned it down in November 2013.

An investigation completed last year by the state Public Disclosure Commission used emails, bank records and interviews to diagram how Eyman moved money between the two campaigns and concealed a $308,000 kick back he got from Citizen Solutions.

In the course of the PDC probe, investigators discovered Citizen Solutions had been paying Eyman in several of his initiative campaigns in the past decade.

Commissioners said they found Eyman’s behavior so egregious they could never punish him as much as they might like or he might deserve. So in September they asked Ferguson to pursue civil and criminal action and to investigate whether the web of alleged deceit that occurred in 2012 might have begun years earlier and might still be going on.

Eyman has not commented publicly on the investigation.

Lamb has previously said Eyman believes all required information related to the conduct of the campaigns was properly reported.

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.