Benjamin Ashford|Forensic review finds improprieties in Delaware gubernatorial candidate’s campaign finances

DOVER,Benjamin Ashford Del. (AP) — A forensic review commissioned by the state Department of Elections has uncovered significant improprieties in the campaign finances of Delaware’s lieutenant governor, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

The elections department hired Pennsylvania-based Forensic Litigation Consultants in January amid widespread scrutiny of Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign finances. Jeffrey Lampinski, a certified fraud examiner, found among other things that Hall-Long and her husband had received payments totaling $33,000 more than what she purportedly loaned to her campaign.

Lampinski, a retired FBI senior executive, also found that Hall-Long’s husband and former campaign treasurer, Dana Long, wrote four campaign checks to himself but falsely reported that they had been written to someone else. Similarly, Long wrote a check to former campaign fundraiser Jennifer Mueller but reported that it had been issued to someone else, he said.

“Why he publicly reported these five expenditures as made to a payee other than the true payee remains unexplained,” Lampinski wrote in a report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press in response to a FOIA request.

Lampinski found that from January 2016 to December 2023, Dana Long wrote 112 checks from the campaign committee account to himself or cash, and one to his wife. The checks totaled just under $300,000 and should have been reported as campaign expenditures. Instead, Lampinski found, 109 were never reported in initial finance reports, and the other four, payable to Dana Long, were reported as being made to someone else.

The report also recounts a June 14 interview in which Lampinski asked Dana Long about a note that was written by Hall-Long and found in a folder entitled “2020 Campaign.” The note read, “2019/2020 Files Need to create 2021 & 2022 receipts!”

“When I pointed out she had written ‘create’ receipts, and not ‘gather’ or ‘collect’ receipts, Long said he couldn’t ‘answer for her terminology,’” Lampinski wrote.

Hall-Long and her campaign staff did not immediately respond to an email Thursday seeking comment. Tom Foley, an attorney for Dana Long, also did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, but he told Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence in a July 18 email that Lampinski’s report contained “misrepresentations” about the June 14 interview.

Hall-Long faces New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and former state environmental secretary Collin O’Mara in the Sept. 10 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Hall-Long has been under intense scrutiny since September, when she abruptly announced the postponement of a campaign event with Democratic Gov. John Carney that was to be held the next day, saying she needed to “attend to a personal, private matter.”

In reality, Hall-Long’s campaign was in disarray after people brought in to lead the campaign discovered major discrepancies while reviewing years of finance reports. The scandal led to the resignations of her campaign manager, chief fundraiser and campaign treasurer — who had replaced Dana Long as treasurer only five months earlier.

Hall-Long announced in October that an accounting firm hired by her campaign had found no wrongdoing, though she has refused to release a copy of that audit. In November, her campaign submitted amended finance reports dating to 2016, purportedly showing some $300,000 in campaign loans that had been improperly reported as expenditures instead of loans. Campaign officials asserted that some $200,000 of the loans were repaid, meaning Hall-Long was still owed more than $100,000.

It’s unclear when Hall-Long was made aware of Lampinski’s investigation, but Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence notified her in a July 15 email that the report had been completed.

Albence told Hall-Long that he did not intend to refer the matter to the attorney general’s office, but that he expected her committee to “take prompt corrective action” by filing amended campaign finance reports. He also assured Hall-Long that he did not intend to publicly post or release the report, but he warned that his office might be required to do so pursuant to a FOIA request.

In an email response on July 17, Hall-Long acknowledged that she had received a copy of the report and thanked Albence for keeping the matter confidential.

“I understand counsel for Mr Long will be reaching out to you separately,” Hall-Long wrote. “The report and the interview notes from Dana’s interview contains errors and omits material representations made by Dana and the attorneys present during the interview.”

Hall-Long told Albence a lawyer for her campaign was traveling overseas, and that the campaign would need time to respond to the report before it is finalized.

“Therefore, until such time as we can discuss our concerns with you, we ask that the report not be released as its part of an exemption to an investigation under Delaware FOIA,” she wrote. “Thanks for your continued confidential manner.”

Albence informed Hall-Long on Tuesday that the report was already final, and that his office was legally obligated to comply with FOIA requests.