Ney campaign fined for unreported consulting payments

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1132267147218400.xml&storylist=cleveland

11/17/2005, 5:34 p.m. ET
By DAVID HAMMER
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Bob Ney's re-election campaign was fined $2,000 Thursday for failing to properly record two payments last November totaling more than $83,000.

An analysis of Federal Election Commission documents by The Associated Press shows the Ney campaign failed for six months to report two wire transfers to Pittsburgh political consulting firm Brabender Cox — one for nearly $48,000 and one for $35,000...

Ney's campaign said the wire transfers weren't reported because someone forgot to write them into a check registry. The campaign filed three amended reports. The first amendment didn't correct the error in question. A second filing a month after the first corrected the total figures. A third filing April 19 detailed the payments to Brabender Cox.

The fine follows shortly after Ney was subpoenaed to testify and provide documents in a federal probe of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. To defend himself, he spent half of all his campaign contributions from July through September on legal fees. Earlier this month, he created a separate legal defense fund to raise money specifically to pay lawyers...

[acmejack]

1. Oh hurt him!

2000 whole dollars! It would be nice if they made the punishment kind of fit the crime. A kid can go to jail for a joint, but corrupt the electoral process, that's not so bad.