BREAKING: BHL Gives Her Own Campaign A Clean Bill Of Health
I call bullshit. Here’s the article:
An internal audit of Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign finances found the gubernatorial candidate and her husband did not accurately report campaign-related expenses when paid for with personal credit cards and loans, Hall-Long’s campaign announced Thursday evening.
The results of the audit come a month after Hall-Long announced the audit of her campaign finances, which she said was prompted after she requested a review of past campaign finance reports and “learned there may have been reporting issues that require attention.”
The campaign did not provide a copy of the audit – conducted by Delaware-based Summit CPA – in its announcement.
“While reporting errors were made, Summit has determined that Bethany and her husband lent more for campaign-related expenses over the course of prior campaigns than they were reimbursed for,” the campaign statement reads. “No wrongdoings or violations were found.”
If you read the article, you will notice that BHL made no public statement and did not answer questions.
I’m calling it right now: Cover-up.
For what it’s worth, Summit CPA LLC appears to be a one-person operation–one Karen Remick of Newark DE:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-remick-02329215
Looks like she’s nothing more than a tax preparer:
https://www.ptindirectory.com/tax-preparers/delaware/newark-de/180826/summit-cpa-group-llc/karen-l-remick-cpa
The imposing name of the LLC notwithstanding, this doesn’t look like a serious audit.
Perhaps BHL will come forward, perhaps she will make the audit public.
Otherwise, we’ll just have to trust her. I don’t and won’t.
In fairness, Karen Remick has a bunch of services listed on her web site other than tax prep- https://summitcpa-group.com/services/
However, let’s take a look at what services BHL said she would obtain – “I am working with independent campaign finance experts and forensic accountants to thoroughly audit the finances.”
If you look at the services Karen Remick provides, not one of them is “auditing”, “forensic accounting”, or “campaign finance expertise.”
My guess? BHL tried to look for a forensic accountant or auditor to do this, and then realized that she could not find any actual forensic accountant or auditor who would overlook or fail to uncover all of the shady stuff that went on with her campaign finances.
There’s a reason BHL won’t release this so-called “audit.” Because if she did, actual auditors would see it and say- “Uh, that’s not a real audit.”
Let’s say it all together, people – THIS. IS. NOT. AN. AUDIT.
I could put wings on a possum and call it a duck. But that doesn’t mean it’s a duck. Similarly, BHL can call this an “audit.” But that does not mean it is one.
It’s nothing short of a disgrace that the News Journal is referring to it an “audit” when the person who conducted it is not… ahem… AN AUDITOR!
That personal attack was uncalled for. Some people take work because they have to. They also have clients that lie to them.
All of a sudden you care about personal attacks? When you were an owner of this blog for a decade? Did you ever read anything on your site? You created this little cesspool. Are we not having fun anymore, Jason? Are you helping bhl now? Weirdly supportive of her.
I don’t give a fuck about Bethany. I REALLY don’t give a fuck about this primary race. (FWIW my comment in the open thread was clearly sarcastic. If you want to intentionally misread it, be my guest).
But Delaware being Delaware – I know the real life person being attacked in this comment and it is not warranted. The real life person is decent and competent. I don’t know why she took this job, but I know she didn’t take it to help Bethany cover up wrong doing. My guess is that she was lied to about the the nature and scope of what the client asked for, but what do I know?
You’re right, Jason, I got carried away there.
The person mentioned probably did her job as best as she could.
On the other hand, the same cannot be said of Bethany’s enablers, who refuse to hold her accountable. They’re the ones we should be criticizing.
Mods, feel free to delete the comment, especially because you excerpted the better parts in another post.
Not having reported personal payment of campaign expenses is not that big of a deal.
However, if that was simply the expenditure side of personal funds which were obtained from others with the understanding it would be used for those purposes, that would be a different story.
How can I put this, there’s NO FUCKING WAY this was some inadvertent technical violation. Nobody would suspend their campaign for a month over such issues.
One only needs to look at the ongoing ethical malfeasance from her husband to know that the campaign is not squeaky clean. I haven’t even covered the most blatant yet, but it was one of which BHL was aware.
This is a clear whitewash from a tax preparer masquerading as some sort of accounting powerhouse. In other words, a report made to order.
If carney stays all in on BHL, then I suspect the fix is in. I’ll keep my ear to the ground for dispatches from Dover. What’s upsetting is that she will likely spin this whole travesty as an example of how diligent she is with handling money. The average voter will be none the wiser.
““While reporting errors were made, Summit has determined that Bethany and her husband lent more for campaign-related expenses over the course of prior campaigns than they were reimbursed for,” the campaign statement reads. “No wrongdoings or violations were found.””
Let me correct that for you:
“While reporting errors were made, tax preparer Karen Remick has determined that Bethany and her husband lent more for campaign-related expenses over the course of prior campaigns than they were reimbursed for,” the campaign statement reads. “No wrongdoings or violations were found.”
Let me correct it for you “a tax preparer showed that the unethical income that hall and her husband have received over the years was cleanly washed through her campaign and provided additional tax deductions for their income”
What a joke. You’re running for governor of state. In a campaign that will cost millions. The whole thing is at stake. You hire a big national expensive firm with a name to it. Nothing against this company woman they hired but she’s not that. Especially when her former treasurer used to work for Perkins coie and is one of the top consultants in the business. She just left because nothing was wrong? Give me a break.
Yeah, no way her whole campaign staff quits over something so minor. Doesn’t smell right.
Has anyone interviewed her staff and asked why an entire campaign office quit?
So her whole campaign staff quits over an “error” that shows BHL to be overly sloppy with her own personal money, but the campaign is squeaky clean???
She’s rubbing that gyno cream on her head.
That’s dis-GUSTing.
I laughed, though…
Clean as a whistle…