Finance Office helped snare bookkeeper

A system the House Finance Office uses to catch fraud and overdrafts was instrumental in the six-month prison sentence handed out to a former bookkeeper to several House Democrats, according to an aide to Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii).  

Laura Flores, who was sentenced on Friday, pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud for embezzling from the office expenses of Abercrombie and California Democratic Reps. Jane Harman and Jim Costa. Flores reduced her term from two years by agreeing to cooperate with an ongoing investigation into how lawmakers use congressional staff and resources for campaign work and personal use.

{mosads}Flores, who embezzled nearly $200,000 from the three members, also worked for Texas Democratic Reps. Charles Gonzales, Rubén Hinojosa and Ciro Rodriguez.

Abercrombie’s aides discovered that Flores has submitted phony expense reports for magazine subscriptions, access to online databases and photocopier cartridges after the Finance Office notified them of several alarming expenditures. Staff found the phony reports after checking a duplicate set of financial books housed in the Finance Office.

When Abercrombie discovered the fraud, he immediately fired Flores, and the House Finance Office called on the Justice Department to investigate. As part of her sentence, Flores will be forced to pay back all the money she embezzled.

“As soon as we realized what was going on, the employee was discharged and we were able to finish out the year at a very reduced level of spending,” said Abercrombie spokesman Dave Halfert.

Halfert said the Finance Office instituted close scrutiny of its books and an alert system after the House banking scandal of the mid-1990s.

Flores fraudulently obtained reimbursement for expenses that she did not incur; for products that she either never ordered or that she ordered and returned after receiving reimbursement; and multiple reimbursements for products that she had purchased only once, according to the Justice Department.

Flores was charged with the felony of wire fraud because the money she received was deposited across states lines from the Federal Reserve in D.C. to her personal bank account in Virginia.