SEEC probes Arora’s campaign spending
GREENWICH — The State Elections Enforcement Commission has launched an investigation into Rep. Harry Arora after a town resident filed a complaint accusing his campaign of misusing funds in his past two races for the state legislature.
The complaint alleges that Arora, R-151, and his campaign violated regulations for candidates who use the Citizens’ Elections Program. The alleged violations include making payments to a family member’s business; reimbursing a family member for services provided; failing to report expenditures on use of a candidate’s business office as a campaign office; and coordinating expenses with the state Republican Party.
Arora denied the allegations when contacted by Greenwich Time.
“This administrative complaint was filed by a political adversary,” Arora said in an email Thursday.
“The expenses mentioned in the complaint are all for legitimate payments made to other entities, including Google, USPS, etc. through a family-owned entity that did not retain any of the funds. To the extent this needs to be clarified in the fillings, our campaign treasurer will work with the SEEC to do so.”
There was no further comment from Arora, who was first elected in a special election in January 2020 to fill the remainder of Fred Camillo’s term in the state House of Representatives and reelected to a full term in November.
The SEEC voted unanimously at its March 3 meeting to launch the investigation.
The complaint was filed by Lucy von Brachel, a member of the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee who said she was acting as an individual.
The complaint was filed against Arora and town residents John Salib and Maxwell Hawkins and also names former Connecticut
Republican Party chair JR Romano as an additional respondent along with Warner Pyne III, treasurer of the state GOP.
“Harry Arora showed a blatant disregard for the law by flouting those requirements for his own political gain,” von Brachel said in a statement Thursday. “His misuse of public funds gave him a financial advantage in two elections that should have had both candidates on an even playing field. Mr. Arora needs to be held accountable.”
von Brachel called for Arora to respond to the allegations.
“The SEEC’s investigation into this complaint will likely take some time, but the community deserves to hear from Mr. Arora now,” she said. “If he and his campaign knowingly violated state election laws, I would expect Mr. Arora to resign his seat in the state House. We need to know that our elected officials will put their community’s best interests ahead of their own selfinterest.”
Candidates participating in the CEP, which provides
public money for political campaigns, cannot pay family members or businesses owned by family members, von Brachel said.
Her complaint alleges that the campaign made three payments to a business called RedStrat for consulting services, including mailers and digital marketing. She said the company was registered a month before November’s election in the name of Nisha Arora, who is Harry Arora’s wife, and said it has the same address on Greenwich Avenue as the Arora campaign office, which is also where Arora operates his business.
In addition to Nisha Arora, the complaint states that Jagjit Singh is a principal for RedStrat. The complaint speculates that Singh is a relative of Arora’s with a business address listed as the same address the Aroras used for the campaign and a personal address in Stamford.
“If Mr. Singh is a family member, this is also a violation of state regulations prohibiting CEP candidates from using grant funds to pay family members or entities owned by family
members,” the complaint states.
Arora did not offer comment on his relationship to Singh.
von Brachel is also alleging that the campaign committee reimbursed Nisha Arora $2,889 for “expenses that appear to be services Mrs. Arora herself provided or for which secondary payees should have been reported.” Under state law, candidates using the CEP program are not allowed to pay family members for services and must report any secondary payees.
Additionally, von Brachel’s complaint alleges that Arora benefited from $7,610 spent by the Connecticut Republican Party to support his candidacy in the special election in January 2020.
“The filings indicate that these were coordinated expenditures for which reimbursement would be sought,” von Brachel said. “CEP-participating candidates cannot accept contributions like this, and there is no evidence that Mr. Arora’s campaign reimbursed the state party.”
Romano, then chair of the state GOP, did not
return a request for comment. Pyne said that it was a mistake that has been corrected. He did not comment on any of the other allegations against Arora, just the one involving the state party.
“It was a clerical error and we have already reached out to the SEEC on that,” Pyne said on Friday. “We are refiling. It’s as simple as it can be.”
Under state law, after receiving a CEP grant, a candidate and their treasurer cannot spend funds on personal use or personal expenses or make “payments to the participating candidate or the participating candidate’s family members” unless they are seeking “reimbursement for a permissible expenditure for which he/she received authorization from the campaign treasurer to make such expenditure.”
In those cases, the candidate or worker would provide the campaign treasurer with a receipt or other documentary evidence from the vendor proving payment.
Salib served as the treasurer for Arora’s special election campaign in January
2020. Hawkins was treasurer for the campaign in the November general election.
Hawkins said he shared Arora’s and Salib’s response, which he said is the campaign’s response to the complaint.
“We have no issue working with the SEEC to resolve any complaints and look forward to resolving the matter,” Hawkins said.
Salib added, “I am confident all the expenses are legitimate, and we can provide all the necessary transparency the SEEC may require.”
von Brachel said the complaint was not about partisan politics.
“Candidates that accept public funding for their campaigns through the Citizens’ Election Program are rightly held to a high standard,” she said in her statement. “The program has helped remove special interest money from Connecticut political campaigns and gain the public’s trust in our elections process. To violate this trust by ignoring the rules is not acceptable.”