Last week, I wrote about the burgeoning financial scandal at the NRCC. The scandal centers around long time NRCC treasurer, Christopher J. Ward. Ward is, or was until very recently, the treasurer of dozens of GOP PACs and committees.
Ward is partners with Susan Arceneaux, a long time aide to Dick Armey,
in Political Compliance Services Inc., a firm that provides FEC reporting services to political entities. Swift Boat Vets and POWS For Truth, a 527, has been a PCS client since its inception.
In its 3/31/06 quarterly 8872 filed with the IRS, Swift Boat Vets reported making a $100,000 contribution to the Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation on 2/8/06. Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann is a Swift Boat Vets co-founder.
The problem is that the Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation did not record a contribution from Swift Boat Vets in 2006, according to the foundation's 2006 990 filed with the IRS. The foundation's 2005 and 2006 990s are online at the Foundation Center's 990 Finder. Search "admiral roy".
The Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation only reported three contributions in 2006:
Boone Pickens - $1,000,000
John O'Neill - $170,839
Weymouth Symmes - $5,000
The three contributions account for all but $400 of total contributions to the foundation in 2006.
Without more information, it is not possible to determine where the missing Swift Boat Vets $100,000 ended up. But I think we can conclude that Susan Arceneaux, at best, is a sloppy bookkeeper. At worst, she is laundering money.
Over the past few years, Susan Arceneaux and Christopher J. Ward have been responsible for reporting the receipt and disbursement of tens of millions of dollars for GOP causes to the FEC. The NRCC already admitted that Ward forged an audit. Maybe someone should ask Susan Arceneaux to account for the missing $100,000 Swift Boat contribution.
Update #1 - Bruce Kesler at the Democracy Project, a right wing blog, posted about the $100,000 Swift Boat Vets contribution on July 17, 2006. The post was in response to a charge that Swift Boat Vets paid $100,000 directly to Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann. In response, Kesler claimed to have gotten an email from the Swift Boat Vets treasurer about the issue:
"Despite great personal expense Admiral Hoffmann only received just over $1,000 in travel reimbursements in the nearly two years of SBVFT existence.
SBVFT made two donations to the Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation. A $10,000 donation was made, as was a $100,000 donation, which was later reimbursed back to SBVFT by the Foundation. In the interim the Foundation used the money for payments to soldiers and Marines who had suffered grievous wounds during the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. To think that those funds were used by any individuals is a despicable distortion slandering honorable men."
I checked every Swift Boat Vets 8872 filed with the IRS in 2006 and 2007 and Swift Boat Vets never recorded a reimbursement from the Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation. Swift Boat Vets treasurer Weymouth D. Symmes was not telling the truth if he did indeed send that email to Bruce Kesler.
On 1/5/07, Swift Boat Vets contributed $400,000 to the Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation and then contributed another $100,000 on 4/26/07. However, we won't know how or even if the foundation recorded the contributions until it files a 2007 990 which could be months from now.