both TonyRo76 and LasVegasDave.
Posted on 12/18/2008 7:12:11 PM PST by randita
Dann faked financial reports, complaint says
Thousands diverted to family and aides, inspector general finds
Thursday, December 18, 2008 7:27 PM
By Darrel Rowland
Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann falsified his campaign finance records to disguise tens of thousands of dollars spent to benefit himself, his wife, children and top campaign staffers, a complaint filed today says.
Statements of receipts and expenditures that Dann's campaign filed with the secretary of state "contain incomplete, inaccurate and false information concerning expenditures from the fund for travel, food, beverages, cell phones and other expenditures," Inspector General Thomas P. Charles said in a sworn statement filed with the complaint before the Ohio Elections Commission.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office filed a separate complaint saying that Dann improperly spent more than $40,000 in campaign cash to install a security system and upgrade his Youngstown-area residence. Dann has said the outlays were justified because he had received death threats from gambling interests, and law-enforcement officers could not adequately protect him.
The gist of Brunner's 160-page complaint was not new, but several of the allegations in Charles' report of more than 1,000 pages were. Among the improper campaign spending he cited:
* Payments to a supplier of a personal business operated by Dann's wife, Alyssa, that were "converted to the personal use of Alyssa Lenhoff Dann."
* Air travel and lodging for Dann's immediate family, along with cell phones for his wife and two minor children. Brunner's complaint also listed more than $4,000 in improper cell-phone spending.
* Regular payments to communications director Leo Jennings III for "consulting services" actually were used for rent and utilities at a Dublin-area condo shared by Dann, Jennings and Anthony Gutierrez, Dann's general services director. Both Jennings and Gutierrez were fired last spring. Payments to campaign treasurer Mary Beth Snyder for "consulting services" actually went for keeping Dann's campaign books.
* Purchases of snacks, beverages, fast food and incidental items were made almost daily both in the Columbus area and around Youngstown, where Dann resided.
Outlays from a separate pool of cash collected from corporations, political action committees and others for Dann's transition also were improper, Charles said.
Specific amounts were not listed for any of the items. Both Dann and his campaign treasurer committed election falsification, Charles said. Jennings helped Snyder and Dann break the law by attempt to disguise the "consulting" payments, Charles added.
Dann took office in January 2007 after campaigning against the "culture of corruption" in Columbus. He was forced to resign May 14 of this year after his fellow Democrats mounted an impeachment effort and investigators led by Charles conducted an extraordinary raid on the attorney general's office.
Things began to unravel for Dann in April after The Dispatch published the accounts of two women describing how they were sexually harassed by Gutierrez. That story led to accounts of mismanagement and corruption and sordid tales of drinking, bad language and sexual liaisons among top officials, culminating in Dann's admission of an affair with his scheduler, who resigned.
A sweeping investigation of wrongdoing in the attorney general's office under Dann is expected to be unveiled by Charles and other authorities before Christmas.
drowland@dispatch.com
Is that the kind with granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances?
Ohio Democrat fraud ping
Redundant.
Also, I suspect this ties into the surprising resignation/firings of the state employees who were involved in the Joe the Plumber fiasco. The Governor knew the Dann stuff was coming down so he cleaned house ahead of time.
That sounds exactly like what the Olver North said about the security system he put in his home. Except he had proven killers out to do him in and Democraps would not accept the excuse.
The $40,000 price tag is a shocker even if Dann’s claim of threats is true.
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