RNC Forced To Disclose $44K AMEX Fraud Incident

The Insider reports:

Fraudsters stole almost $44,000 just before the 2020 election from the Republican National Committee — the latest news to emerge in a string of thefts from prominent federal political operations. The RNC’s treasurer, Ronald C. Kaufman, acknowledged the theft in an April 30 letter to the Federal Election Commission, an agency that is responsible for enforcing campaign-finance transparency laws and had questioned the committee’s accounting.

The thieves spent more than $35,500 of the RNC’s money at EZ Coffee & Tea, a Pennsylvania-based merchant whose products include high-end espresso machines, and another $8,450 at MidWest Biochar, an agricultural-services company in Kansas, according to Kaufman’s April 30 letter to the FEC. But the RNC originally disclosed the thefts differently, describing them in an October FEC report as a “credit” for “office supplies.”

Read the full article. AMEX has reversed the charges. Last year the RNC reported a $14,000 expenditure as “building maintenance,” but they had actually bought face masks.

Thieves jacked the @GOP for $44K and then went on a coffee supply shopping spree, federal records show. Reporter @DaveLevinthal spills the tea. https://t.co/e3rNcF0W9f

— Politics Insider (@PoliticsInsider) May 6, 2021