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 bet she spent the money on this website’s horrible layout!
Never give up on the gauche vomit of a site design that this is.
Awesome avatar/icon, is there some way I can make mine look more like yours? http://digilander.libero.it/jurada2003/64.gif
Too big a HONEY POT to be left alone !!! That’s why they ought to have more than one signature require on every check – checks and balances for the checks !!!
I am loving this new layout. Bobbo is gone. Totally worth it.
Good point Luc!
Moved and seconded.
And I don’t see any comments/posts from TEAD either. YAY!!!
Seriously lets comment on the articles instead of drifting off like this.
Then you haven’t been looking, he’s still hanging on. I also doubt booboo is gone for good. I think its just that the articles recently have been, for lack of a better word, mundane.
Too true on both counts. (I am not TEAD, I am Tom)
Yep, just reading articles of interest now. Some comments still funny.
I do detect fewer responded to posts.
Inane to expect people to scroll to the bottom of a second page in order to find a comment someone is responding to up top.
This blog does now encourage (not prevent) everyone to simply post their opinions and leave. No longer encourages (not requires) interaction.
If all I wanted to do is post my opinion for all the world to see, I would have stayed with any of almost all the others with this same approach.
But people can remain comfortable in their dogmatic unchallenged talking points mode.
Interesting for a blog to act the same as the the “powers that be” that it so often criticizes. No reasons given. No explanation.
Quiet Sheep!!!!
Pro’s and Con’s to all we do.
Been kind of annoyed by all the “hate the format” and was just wondering what you mean by:
“Inane to expect people to scroll to the bottom of a second page in order to find a comment someone is responding to up top.”
…since it looks to me like the replies are attached. So, I figured the only way to figure it out is to reply to your comment. Now I will know what that problem is.
On the subject of the embezzlement, if the FBI was tracking her since last year, why didn’t they do an audit earlier this year?
Sam–yes it may seem that way and you can only really tell “by comparison.”
One of the posters above resp0nded to “Jim D” but ((Oops–I said above, but it is now below?))===REWRITE: one of the first posts I read was responding to and complimenting Jim D but in order to know what the conversation was about I would have to start the mornings read by going to the bottom of the thread and scrolling up.
Good software design is all about “the key strokes.”===How much effort does it take to get the job done? Anyone——ANYONE—-actually interested in a subject on a blog will read the prior comments before posting themselves. This now requires scrolling to the end/start of the thread and going backwards/forward to the most recent comment.
Yes, it can be done but it does not “flow” and thereby does not encourage anyone to actually read opposing points of view before vomiting their own.
Most blogs are going to this format—so if you have no issue with it, then you are with the majority.
Let’s define majority?===Sam, did you read the whole thread before responding—or just respond to this entry? Doesn’t really matter what your answer is. The blog now encourages, but does not require, uninformed opinions to flow forth.
To each his own.
Actually, too many people here don’t even like seeing other people actively engaged in a conversation. Takes away from their own self involved preening which is satisfied merely by seeing their own posts on top.
Silly Hoomans.
She was saving up for a make over. A few more years and she would have had enough for it too.
Ugly people like money too
Dvorak may be the Madoff of web design.
OH SNAP!!
Birds of a feather flock together.
So Democrats make fun of Republicans for being fat (Christie), but give their campaign money to fat Democrats (Durkee)?
I think it safe to say that she invested the stolen money in Ben & Jerry’s. If Feinstein wants her campaign money back, she’ll need to use s liposuction machine to get it.
Right about the ice cream.
FTA
“At least some of the money went to pay Durkee’s mortgage and credit-card bills, which included charges for gas, ice cream, cosmetics and a veterinarian, the FBI said.”
She’s the best player on the Republican’s Team!
I hate this new layout… how to access older blog entries? I can see only last month…
Get over the layout, people. Do you really have nothing else to add to a society of thinkers than nonconsequential complaints? Get a life or at least some real problems.
Nope, that’s what internet message boards are for.
Agreed.
Tip of the iceberg.
-and nobody (anywhere) ever noticed the books were “a bit off” -please.
-s
Good point, JimD. The campaign finance regulatory environment is a mess, and this is a glaring example. How did nobody notice this for so long?
This is the best and biggest argument for campaign reform.
The politician‘s own self interest.
bump to the front page:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=S2oymHHyV1M
A black guy in a mask, can rob a 7/11 for $20-200 and gets 20 years.
this person will get 5+ years and still have millions,..
Blame it all on the internet and a BOT/VIRUS..
Is the point of the picture that the artwork is missing?
HAR, this is too rich!
It’s funny and sad that Feinstein would say she “masterminded a multimillion dollar fraudulent scheme”.
The only reason the Democrats care at all about this is because she stole a few million from the Democratic Party. Not like she stole trillions from the average tax payer, like a true Democrat.
You want to know where the money is?? How about looking where all the TARP money went, or any of the Obama jobs bill, or the clean air act or …
Oh No—-you say: “You want to know where the money is?? How about looking where all the TARP money went, or any of the Obama jobs bill, or the clean air act or …”
Tarp was roughly
1/3 = tax cuts for the already too rich job creators
1/3= pork to get TARP Passed==both sides holding America hostage
1/3= job stimulus saving 2 million jobs.
Most economic experts agree the job stimulus needed to be x3 times bigger than it was to stimulate even more jobs. Idiot rightwingnuts like yourself vote against America keeping the Pukes in office to continue their attack on the middle and working class.
then you continue with: “or any of the Obama jobs bill….” /// Yes, he saved Detroit the socialist bastard. Normal bankruptcy is always an option, and the effects of options not taken are always open to debate, but why argue with success as you do?
But I post because you even complain about money being wasted on: “—the clean air act — /// Indeed, only those on welfare looking for a handout from those who struggle for success want clean air to breath.
Ah Yea===this blog has done you a disservice. Over the years, you’ve gone from conservative, to Tea Party, to just plain nuts. What happened to you man? Get laid off or what?
I’d like to know where Bobbo found this statement:
“1/3= job stimulus saving 2 million jobs”
Are those jobs the Obama “shovel ready” jobs?
If there is any basis in reality in the statement, the saved jobs were SEIU and other Union hack-government jobs. The money only postponed the inevitable. It just pushed the hand-holding out 12 months. The states are now crying for more stimulus money to avoid cutting their payrolls which they should have done prior to TARP.
JB–you are right that I cobbled together several statements I have read, assuming for the post they addressed the same thing. Right now, its not even clear in my mind if my 1/3 break down rightfully applies to the TARP or to the Job Stimulus. Two different things, or one the part of the other? But when contesting a talking point, why go deeper?
Same as with your post. You conflate Union Jobs with government jobs. Why all the hate? Why the class warfare? Why do you hate America so?
And the same with the rest of you self loathing Pukes. Whats really pathetic is you think of yourself as separate from the Union Hack-government jobs and fail to recognize in metaphor they are all part of the skin on the ship keeping us out of the ocean of the race to the bottom.
Why can’t you determine your own best interests, that of your kiddies and grandkiddies?
Stoopid Hooman.
Why the hate? It’s not hate. It’s anger. Because the government union hacks are living large on the working man’s dime.
Take a look at what California taxpayers have to support.
http://goo.gl/Ae9d2
California racked up nearly $70 billion in general obligation debt, and that doesn’t include their $500 billion unfunded union pension liability. Who is going to pay for that? The feds?
The state government is run by a brothel of environmentalists, lawyers, public-sector unions and legislative bums. When they’re not taxing or spending, they’re creating regulations and commissions like the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology and the California Blueberry Commission. Many businesses are leaving the state.
The sad part is there are similar corresponding and unnecessary Federal Agencies that duplicate many of these state agencies (paid for by our taxes).
My best interest for my kiddies and grandchildren is to move all of us to Costa Rica.
Well JB—what can I say when you are right, but that you are right? The California Retirement arrangement(s) should anger everyone that gets near them.
Going to be interesting to see how they do play out. Supposedly a State can’t go bankrupt and all these retire on a percent of your highest salary equating to a retirement worth millions to each individual simply can’t be afforded.
Every reasonable person knew it was a sham program from the start but all held their noses and just hoped it wouldn’t bet noticed on their shift. Such plans always do finally come to light.
Without reference to you and me JB==it really is a good example of Stoopid Hoomans in action.
I will only fault your analysis to the degree it is partisan. You might slice the baloney thin enough to get a piece that is mostly Dumbo’s but the entire log is just about 50/50 with the games playing out by both sides declaring BS such as yours and then blaming the other side such as you do.
Very sad we see nothing but fraud, incompetence, and partisanship all around us. Sad and troubling.
Bobbo, please go away. Everyone was hoping that this would be “Change we can believe in!”
Do we need to change the format again??
Yoko (Oh No)–its all a matter of degree isn’t it. I know you hate that type of nuance. Not totally absolutely all one thing with none of anything else. Black and White. Puke or Socialist. With us or Against us.
but the truth is you aren’t as stupid as Alfie, and I am now posting a whole lot less than before. I assume the trends will continue. You will ultimately run for office on the “Freee America” ticket about the time I quit DU totally.
Life outside of illusions is like that.
Yea verily.
Bad but pales in comparison to UBS trader, Kweku Adoboli.
charged with fraud and false accounting to the tune of $2.3-billion.
The outrage from the sheep here tells me you’re ignoring GOP pleas to not march in front of Wall Street.
I don’t like cons.
Wall street is mostly about stocks and bonds. I have very little against it since they handle most pension plans etc.
I’m not all that fond of the fact that Goldman Sacks pretty much owns the WH and has for some time but the place to protest that is the WH.
Same thing about not being happy with all the conflicts the President wants to get us in without getting us out of anything.
Oh, just in case you missed his green jobs program seems be run by total incompetents starting with the President and every lack wit he appointed. When they aren’t burning money or starting a war they are selling guns to the drug cartels. What a bunch of heroes.
Oh I see. You’re OK with Wall Street but not so much with Goldman, Obama wars and his green jobs.
Got it !
See? You found someone as hypocrite as you.
The irony is you started this comment by comparing this wrong to another wrong, which in your mind made this on right.
Sheep!
We’ve all heard the phrase “s**t happens”. This is really just another reminder that when lawyers and fools try to play with numbers… Washington happens.