Investigators Into NRCC Finances Say That Treasurer Acted Alone In Taking $725,000

Investigators looking into the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) finances said that the House GOP organ lost $725,000 to a former treasurer who acted alone in transferring the money to his own bank accounts.

According to the investigation’s report, the former employee, Christopher Ward, never conducted audits of the committee from 2002 to 2006 despite assuring that he had done so. The NRCC had called for the investigation, conducted by two outside firms, after it learned in January that Ward appeared to have fabricated a 2006 audit.

Ward has yet to face criminal charges.

NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) presented the report to GOP congressional leaders Thursday.

Cole said in a statement: “For years, Chris Ward submitted bogus financial audits to banks and concocted a scheme to direct NRCC funds to his personal accounts for his own selfish purposes. Misappropriated funds and related accounting irregularities took nearly five months for financial experts to unravel, diverting precious financial resources and time that would otherwise have been devoted to our main job of electing Republicans to Congress. However, because of the time and effort devoted to the forensic audit, the NRCC is in a much stronger position to protect against such a fraudulent act from happening again.”

The report of the investigation, conducted by Covington & Burling and PricewaterhouseCoopers, recommended that the NRCC create a new Chief Financial Officer position to help oversee its treasurer and adopt more formal accounting and oversight practices.

Download the investigation’s report here.

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