Neighbors and associates say there’s nothing in Kinde Durkee’s background, demeanor or lifestyle to suggest that she “masterminded a multimillion dollar fraudulent scheme,” as U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein charged in a Sept. 23 lawsuit. While Feinstein reported $5 million in cash to the Federal Election Commission as of June 30, the bank found only $662,100 on Sept. 21, according to court documents…
The scope of the alleged embezzlements from Durkee- controlled funds for federal politicians is the largest at least since the Federal Election Campaign Act became law in 1972, said Kent Cooper, a former Federal Election Commission official.
“There’s been no one else who even comes close,” Cooper, who now runs the money-in-politics database Capitol Hill Access…
Things started to unravel for Durkee in 2010, when the California Fair Political Practices Commission found irregularities while auditing the political finances of Jerome Horton, the chairman of the Board of Equalization, the state’s tax administrator. Horton said Durkee “acknowledged her mistakes” during the audit and agreed to pay the commission’s $13,000 fine and his legal bills…
After auditing another Durkee-managed account, the commission in November 2010 called the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Public Corruption Squad in Sacramento, according to court documents. In an affidavit, FBI Special Agent Reginald Coleman said it appeared that Durkee moved money from campaign accounts to her company’s bank accounts and then transferred other candidates’ funds to cover shortfalls. She covered up her actions by filing false disclosure forms, according to the affidavit…
“I find the whole thing remarkable,” said Stephen Kaufman, the lawyer for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and several other Durkee clients, in an interview. “We have no idea where all the money went.”
Apparently California bureaucrats are as diligent as the SEC at oversight.
I suppose the clients should have checked the books but then they hired her because they trusted her and the records they were given may have checked out.
In the end trusting other people to take care of your business for you means you will get burned.
Of course big government is different. Just ask Dallas and the progressives. Big government will solve all our problems. Put your blind faith in Obama and the progressives and they will take care of you/take you to the cleaners.
The old saying is trust but verify and these people don’t want you looking at what they are doing and the reason why is they are incompetent at the jobs they have been hired to do, are looking out for themselves and their friends first, and may be engaged in criminal activities.
Is this what they call it the Dream Act?
Make that why
California is a great state. There is a lot of diversity here and a lot of progressive thought. However the state government is so bloated with both bureaucracy and unmanageable pensions that it is hard to imagine it getting out of the hole it is in. The state will have to make almost radical reforms to how it manages government worker benefits.
The state needs more leadership. And has to be willing to take chances and be creative. It feels as if elected officials are only looking at the same old solutions. That is the definition of insanity right. Doing the same thing and expecting different results. LOL