Columbus – Mike Crites, Republican candidate for Ohio Attorney General, today filed an Ohio Elections Commission complaint against his opponent Richard Cordray for potential illegal campaign contributions to the Cordray campaign committee.Here is a copy of the complaint:
“At best, the revelations of the past week present a strong appearance of impropriety,” Crites said. “At worst, Richard Cordray has violated the law in his quest to be the state’s top lawyer. Either way, Ohioans deserve better from their next Attorney General.”
Filed by Crites himself, the complaint names as respondents Richard Cordray; Cordray’s campaign committee: Montford Will, a bond trader doing business with the State Treasurer’s office; Lindsey Kuty, stepdaughter of Montford Will; and Jane Doe as the unidentified mother of Kuty.
The complaint alleges that Richard Cordray and his campaign committee knowingly accepted an illegal $10,000 contribution from Kuty when, according to Will, the funds had actually been provided by Kuty’s mother. Shortly after the donation in January 2007, Will’s firm, Wachovia Securities, saw its share of the state’s bond trading business through the Treasurer’s office increase by more than 3,700 percent.
Donating money in someone else’s name is illegal under Ohio campaign finance law. The penalty for knowingly accepting such a contribution is forfeiture of the nomination or office and a fine of up to $10,000.
On October 5, a news article in the Dayton Daily News exposed the alleged illegal contribution. Not long after that donation, Will’s firm – Wachovia Securities – went from doing less than one percent of the Treasurer’s bond trading business to 37.5 percent. When asked if the $10,000 donation – the maximum allowable by law – actually came from his 23-year-old stepdaughter or from him, Will stated on the record that the money “came from her mother.”
Crites noted that this is not the first questionable donation in Richard Cordray’s campaign war chest. In August, Cordray refused to return $20,000 in campaign contributions from Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo, two Cuyahoga County officials at the center of a massive federal investigation into public corruption.
“If the evidence uncovered by the news media proves to be true, then Richard Cordray is guilty of the same ‘pay to play’ and ‘culture of corruption’ that Marc Dann campaigned against and then practiced while in office,” Crites said. “It’s entirely possible that Richard Cordray could win the election and forfeit the office.”
Friday, October 10, 2008
BREAKING: Crites Files Elections Complaint Against Cordray for Potential Illegal Contributions
Release:
