New documents detail Fox’s campaign account transactions
PROVIDENCE (AP) — New documents filed by a lawyer for imprisoned former Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox detail how he funneled $158,000 out of his campaign account.
Albin Moser filed eight years of the Democrat’s campaign finance reports late Tuesday, including amended reports for the years 2008 through 2014 and newly filed reports for 2015.
Fox is serving a threeyear federal prison sentence. He pleaded guilty last year to corruption for taking a bribe of more than $50,000 and taking $108,000 from his campaign account dating to 2008.
Federal prosecutors previously acknowledged that an additional $50,000 was missing from the account, but released no details.
Moser told the state Board of Elections in a letter Tuesday that he did not have access to all the bank and credit card records he needed to make a complete accounting, and said he only had access to records back to 2008. The records he has showed there was a $36,000 discrepancy between what Fox reported and what was in the campaign bank account before 2008, Moser said.
The documents also show Fox paying for thousands in credit card bills in addition to making repeated wire transfers to his personal bank account. Fox also failed to report more than $10,000 in contributions and other income during the period, in addition to failing to report what appeared to be legally allowable expenses, such as donations to other campaigns and organizations, meals with lawmakers and bank fees.
Richard Thornton, who oversees campaign finance for the Board of Elections, said on Wednesday that he had just received the filings and it was too early to say whether Fox will face any sanctions.
Lawmakers last year tightened campaign finance reporting laws to make it more difficult for candidates to use campaign money on themselves.
Campaigns are now required to have separate bank accounts and file a bank statement annually. Candidates are also prohibited from serving as their own campaign treasurers if they have large accounts.