Posted on 07/17/2010 12:22:47 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Biden fined $219k for '08 violations By: Kenneth P. Vogel July 17, 2010 02:40 PM EDT
The Federal Election Commission has penalized Vice President Joe Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign $219,000 for accepting over-the-limit contributions and a deeply discounted flight on a private jet owned by an embattled New York hedge fund, as well as for sloppy record-keeping.
Biden’s campaign has indicated to the FEC that it will pay the penalty to the U.S. Treasury to resolve the campaign finance compliance issues, which were revealed in an audit report released Friday by the commission.
Elizabeth Alexander, a spokeswoman for Biden in the vice president’s office, called the FEC-ordered repayment “relatively small,” and said "some repayment is commonplace after presidential campaign audits.”
Biden was subject to the audit as a condition of accepting taxpayer funds for his campaign through the presidential public financing system. In all, Biden, who dropped out of the race after coming in fifth in the Iowa caucuses and was tapped eight months later to be Barack Obama’s running mate, received $857,000 in taxpayer money for his presidential campaign (including thousands of dollars after he was elected vice president) which raised $8.2 million from individual contributions, according to the report.
It found that the campaign accepted an illegal corporate contribution in the form of a round-trip flight between New Hampshire and Iowa in June 2007 for three people (it does not indicate if Biden, then a Senator from Delaware, was among the passengers) on a private jet owned by GEH Air Transportation, LLC. Federal Aviation Administration records show that GEH Air Transportation is owned by the Clinton Group, a New York hedge fund controlled by George E. Hall.
(Excerpt) Read more at dyn.politico.com ...
I'll bet Joe Biden will NEVER do THAT again.
More felonious activity by a totally corrupt administration. Nothing to see here. Move on.(org)
Right, the crooks purposely disabled the check built into the software that rejects/screens foreign credit cards. Even if that were being investigated, which is probably not the case, the fines and any other consequences come way after the fact. So you can win the election by committing all kinds of finance violations because they won't catch up to you until well after you are in office.
Every online contribution should be posted online within two days and every cash/check contribution within one week. All should show the origin of the contribution. Then watchdogs such as FReepers can have at it and make noise about any violations. Each campaign's system should be remotely audited at random times by the FEC at least weekly to make sure there are no back doors and disabled protections and the results are published online in real time. Campaigns can publicly highlight the opposing campaign's shenanigans. All easily possible with existing software and the Internet (thanks, Al!).
Top Democrats seems to make a fortune off of government. 219k doesn’t even rise to the level of a slap on the wrist.
It’s a tidy system. Bought and paid for at all levels (in both Parties, don’t kid yourself).
Good. When are they going to fine Obama for all his illegal votes and stealing donations from the taxpayers accounts?
Whomever reported this is a smart arse and can bite me!
Cheater
Low interest loan.
“The FEC also ordered Biden’s presidential campaign to pay the Treasury $86,000 for stale-dated checks it issued, including for contribution refunds.”
I’d like to see a little more discussion on the “stale-dated checks” technique.
Did Biden even raise $200k in his presidential run? This may set some kind of P/E ratio (penalties/earnings) record for a national candidate.
They need to add prison time to these sort of crimes.
ROTFLOL!!!
Resign ..?? Why should he resign .. most of the other members of this admin are crooks too .. right ..??
This sure has been a non issue......nothing to see here, move along.
He’s still VP so I don’t think he cares.
ON THE INTERNET:
http://www.fec.gov/agenda/2010/mtgdoc1043.pdf
http://www.politico.com/static/PPM152_100717_fecaudit.html
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