A cyber-criminal allegedly stole roughly $700,000 from Sen. Jerry Moran’s (R-Kan.) campaign in November, according to the campaign, The Hill reported.
Timothy Gottschalk, the treasurer for the Moran campaign, said last month in a statement to the Federal Election Commission that the campaign discovered on November 14, or approximately a week after the election, that it had paid two false invoices for a total of $690,000.
On October 25 and November 9, payments totaling $345,000 each were made.
According to the letter, the event was reported by the campaign to the Kansas Republic County Sheriff’s Office on November 16; the FBI and Kansas Bureau of Investigation were then tasked with looking into it.
The document claims that $168,184.03 from the Wells Fargo Bank wire transfer on November 9 was recovered and that Astra Bank alerted the campaign office on November 23.
Raw Story, an innovative, investigative journalism website, broke the story of the heist first.
According to a representative for the campaign, a cyber-criminal targeted the accounting company the campaign hired and had money moved to fictitious accounts, according to a story in the Kansas City Star. According to them, the campaign is “pursuing all avenues” to get the money back, and the FBI investigation is still open.
Moran handily defeated his Democratic opponent in a dependably Republican state by a margin of 23 points to gain reelection to a third term in the Senate.
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