Courtesy of al.com
According to documents recently relased by the Federal Election Commission, U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt’s campaign paid a $13,000 penalty for filing several years of inaccurate campaign finance reports, al.com reported recently.
According to the FEC, the faulty records ran from 2006 to 2010, and meant that Aderholt’s campaign account misrepresented how much money it raised, how much it spent and how much cash it had on hand for several years.
More than $58,000 in campaign receipts were misstated, and there were inaccurate records for how $129,600 was spent.
Some of the spending by the committee was undisclosed, some of it was disclosed but not supported by bank records and some was disclosed in the wrong reporting period, according to the FEC.
Another $273,000 was donated to the committee and disclosed, but not deposited into the campaign account within 10 days, as required.
Aderholt, a Republican from Haleyville, is running for his 9th term in the U.S. Congress representing the 4th District north of Birmingham and south of Huntsville.
The August conciliation agreement between the FEC and Aderholt’s campaign, recently released publicly, said the congressman’s campaign committee has corrected the mistakes and taken steps to prevent them from happening again, such as replacing the campaign bookkeeper with someone who is specifically trained in FEC compliance, and hiring an accountant to do regular checks on the financial activity.
“These were garden variety accounting errors that we discovered when we reviewed previous FEC reports,” said Aderholt’s campaign spokesman, Brian Rell. “We self-reported these errors to the FEC and worked to get the issues resolved, and because there were errors, we paid a fine.”
There are no criminal charges and no accusations of money being stolen, Rell said.
After the conciliation agreement, Aderholt’s campaign also reported it found more than $100,000 in campaign spending from 2006-09 that was not previously disclosed. Dozens of other transactions had incorrect dates.