GOP senator’s campaign says ‘cyber-criminal’ stole nearly $700,000

The campaign for Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) revealed a “cyber-criminal” stole nearly $700,000 from the campaign in November. 

Moran campaign’s treasurer, Timothy Gottschalk, wrote a letter to the Federal Election Commission last month to report that the campaign learned on Nov. 14, about a week after the election, that it made two payments totaling $690,000 for fraudulent invoices. 

The payments were for $345,000 each and happened on Oct. 25 and Nov. 9. 

The letter states that the campaign reported the incident to the Republic County Kansas Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 16, and the case was then transferred to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the FBI. 

It states that the campaign office was notified by Astra Bank on Nov. 23 that $168,184.03 was recovered from the Nov. 9 wire transfer from Wells Fargo Bank. 

The theft was first reported by Raw Story, a progressive, investigative news site.

The Kansas City Star reported that a spokesperson for the campaign said cybercriminals targeted the accounting firm that the campaign used and had money wired to fraudulent accounts. They said the campaign is “pursuing all avenues” to recover the money, and the FBI’s investigation is ongoing. 

Moran easily won reelection to a third term in the Senate, winning by 23 points over his Democratic opponent in a reliably red state.

— Updated 10:42 p.m.