FBI investigating $690,000 wire theft from Jerry Moran’s Senate campaign
The FBI is investigating allegations that a thief stole from Sen. Jerry Moran’s campaign fund while he was running for U.S. Senate last year, according to a letter his campaign sent to the federal elections commission.
Moran’s campaign wrote a letter to the FEC on Dec. 8, alerting it that two payments were sent for fraudulent invoices during the campaign — one for $345,000 on October 25 and one for $345,000 on November 9 for a total of $690,000.
Timothy Gottschalk, the campaign’s treasurer, said the campaign reported the incident to the Republic County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 16 and the case was transferred to the Kansas Bureau of Investigations and the FBI.
“Cybercriminals targeted the accounting firm employed by Moran For Kansas and money was wired to fraudulent bank accounts,” Tom Brandt, a spokesman for Moran’s campaign, said in a statement. “As soon as a discrepancy was realized, it was reported to law enforcement.”
Moran easily won reelection to his third term in the Senate in November in a campaign that spent more than $4.6 million. His campaign used SRCP Media to place media buys — which means they purchase the ad time used to run his campaign commercials.
SRCP Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Brandt said he could not comment because of the ongoing FBI investigation.
The letter was first reported by RawStory.
Ad Astra bank was able to secure $168,184.03 from Wells Fargo Bank as part of the November 9 wire transfer.
“We are currently pursuing all avenues available to recover the money and there is an ongoing investigation with the FBI,” Brandt said. The campaign also consulted with the FEC on how to transparently report the unauthorized expenditures.”
Correction: An initial version of this article misspelled the media buyer used by the Moran campaign.
This story was originally published January 20, 2023 at 5:34 PM.
