'Fraudulent activity by a third-party cyber-criminal': Kansas GOP senator campaign scammed out of $690K

23 January 2023

Kansas GOP senator Jerry Moran’s office says that “someone scammed” the lawmaker’s reelection campaign out of $690,000, U.S. News & World Report reports.

Senator Moran’s office confirmed that whoever scammed his campaign managed to succeed by convincing the senator’s “accounting firm to wire the money to fraudulent bank accounts.”

In an electronic letter to the Federal Election Commission, Moran’s campaign treasurer TImothy Gottschalk reported “fraudulent activity by a third-party cyber-criminal” and confirmed that the case was forwarded to the FBI and Kansas Bureau of Investigation after it passed through the local sheriff’s office in November.

Gottschalk wrote in the letter that as of Dec. 8 so far $168,184 of the total $690K has been recovered.

According to U.S. News & World Report, the letter also noted that Moran’s campaign wired $345,000 in October and another $345,000 in November after receiving what turned out to be “two fraudulent invoices” from SPCP Media, which was hired to support the senator’s broadcast ads.

Moran, who won his third six-year term in November, raised over $7.3 million during the election cycle and spent over $5.1 million of it.

Tom Brandt, a spokesman for the senator, said in an email that the office is “currently pursuing all avenues available to recover the money and there is an ongoing investigation with the FBI.” He asserted that “as soon as a discrepancy was realized, it was reported to law enforcement.”

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