Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Acute Observation

Kinde Durkee, a Democratic campaign treasurer from California, defrauded about 50 state and national politicians of around $7 million over a decade, according to a filing by federal prosecutors.

Durkee was first arrested in September and charged with suspicion of mail fraud in a case that involved Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other members of Congress. The most recent charges against Durkee were filed Tuesday in Sacramento. In one instance cited in the filings, Durkee shifted $23,000 from Feinstein’s campaign accounts to cover Amazon.com charges and other personal expenses.

The court filing said Durkee had devised a scheme from January 2000 until she was arrested last September "to defraud clients of Durkee & Associates, and to obtain money from them by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises."

It said she had signature control over roughly 700 bank accounts, including those used by political campaigns.

In reporting on the story, one source said “That would have bought a lot of votes.”

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