Audit finds Hall-Long's campaign finances 'incomplete, inaccurate, misleading'

A forensic audit finding Delaware gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long's campaign finance reporting to be incomplete, inconsistent, inaccurate and misleading has prompted state attorneys to seek reform to Delaware’s election laws.

The state Department of Elections in January hired Pennsylvania-based Forensic Litigation Consultants LLC’s Jeffrey Lampinski to audit Hall-Long's campaign finances as concerns mounted over the campaign committee’s handling of the finances.

Lampinski reviewed the Committee to Elect Bethany Hall-Long's amended reports and supporting documentation from 2016 through 2023, and found:

• Hall-Long and her husband, Dana Long, paid themselves $33,178.65 more than what the committee has publicly reported. None of these payments were shown as campaign expenditures, even though it’s required by Delaware law.

• Over $47,500 in checks were cut to “falsified” payees. Instead of the documented entity being paid, Dana Long was paid instead. In one instance, a $2,500 check was made payable to a former chief fundraiser rather than the entity listed.

• Hall-Long's campaign still has not disclosed $91,722.58 paid to Dana Long, who was the lieutenant governor's campaign treasurer until about May 2023.

• Other improprieties include failing to report payments to the Longs as campaign expenses; not properly documenting over 200 expenditures; misrepresenting the total cost of expenses; failing to document large bank transfers; and using personal credit cards for campaign-related expenses, accruing bonus points.

“I find the committee’s account of expenditures in its public campaign finance reporting incomplete, inconsistent, and often inaccurate, leading to an unreliable picture of its financial affairs,” Lampinski wrote in his final report to election Commissioner Anthony Albence. “Further, I find that several reported expenditures (especially in 2016) are questionably personal, and not campaign related. Finally, in those five instances in which the committee misrepresented the true payee of an expenditure, I find its public campaign finance reporting misleading.”

The independent audit’s findings come over eight months after Hall-Long's campaign declared that an internal review of its finances last year, conducted by Dover-based Summitt CPA, found “no wrongdoings or violations.”

During that time, the campaign refused to release the audit , instead reassuring the public that Hall-Long's amended campaign finance reports would clear up unanswered questions. Those amended reports revealed the lieutenant governor’s campaign improperly reported over $300,000 in campaign-related expenses, but it did not make clear what the reported loans were used for , nor did it make clear whether they’d been repaid.

Hall-Long faces Democratic challengers New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and former state environmental secretary Collin O’Mara in the race for Delaware governor . The three will face off during the state’s primary election Sept. 10.

While the state election commissioner reassured Hall-Long in emails that he would not be referring the matter to the Department of Justice, Albence implored that the committee make necessary amendments to its reports promptly.

Hall-Long in an emailed statement Friday disputed Lampinski's findings and pledged to address any issues.

"I will address any bookkeeping discrepancies head on," the lieutenant governor said. "Contrary to the Lampinski preliminary report, our family has loaned the campaign more money than we have been reimbursed and we have forgiven that remaining loan balance."

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Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said Friday that she agrees with Albence’s interpretation with state law, which makes Title 15’s definition of a crime “too narrow to prosecute,” but stressed that the forensic audit is a broader “indictment of the campaign finance code itself.”

“That Delaware’s campaign finance laws are unclear enough to permit those inadequacies – not just of this campaign, but theoretically of any – tells me that they beg for reform,” Jennings said in an emailed statement. “To leave them unchanged would enable future disregard for proper intake, disbursement, and reporting of campaign dollars, and encourage the atrophy of a system that the public relies on. My office will be working to recommend reforms to the General Assembly that would seal these gaps and enable the kind of accountability that warrants the public’s trust in our campaign finance rules.”

Why findings can't be prosecuted

Current state campaign finance law, as outlined in Title 15 Chapter 80 in Delaware Code, specifically details that a person must “knowingly” violate laws for it to rise to a level to prosecute.

Further, not only would prosecutors need to prove that a person violated the law "knowingly" but also that the person knew the reports and documents were falsely filed. Essentially, you cannot prosecute someone simply because they were careless or sloppy.

But just because state code does not “contain a criminal statute that adequately describes the campaign’s actions,” does not mean lawmakers should sit idly by, Jennings said.

“We cannot pursue charges where the law does not provide the standards to do so; but neither should we abide a precedent that flouts the spirit of the law when committees demonstrate negligence,” she said.

This is why Jennings said she intends to recommend reforms to shore up gaps in current law.

Meyer’s gubernatorial campaign Friday afternoon charged that the “independent investigation proves that Hall-Long has been lying to Delawareans...breaking the law and trying to cover it up.”

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The county executive, who will face Hall-Long and O’Mara in a Democratic Primary for state governor in September, called on the lieutenant governor to take responsibility.

"Bethany’s corruption is astounding: using campaign dollars to pay off personal credit cards, falsifying campaign documents, illegally taking money from the campaign, and lying about conducting an audit – it is absolutely unacceptable for a public servant to behave this way,” Meyer said in the emailed statement.

Hall-Long defended herself and her campaign for governor, noting in her statement that "voters want a governor who will champion their problems" like public education, reproductive freedom and access to affordable health care.

"If I am elected governor, I will work tirelessly every single day to do just that," she said.

Checks paid to Hall-Long's husband

In the forensic audit, Lampinski said he found five instances where the committee submitted false entries in its campaign finance reports for the “payee.”

At least three checks, totaling about $41,450, were paid to Dana Long instead of the entities listed in the campaign committee’s treasurer reports. One other totaling $3,600 Lampinski could not substantiate as having been paid to Long.

When Lampinski asked about these discrepancies, Long – who was the campaign treasurer up until May last year – had no answer, and then was advised by counsel to refuse answering any additional questions Lampinski had about the falsified payees, according to the audit.

AMENDED FILINGS: Lt. Gov. Hall-Long improperly reported over $300K in campaign-related expenses

“It is indisputable that Long wrote four of the five expenditure checks at issue to himself, yet publicly reported them in the committee’s campaign finance reports as written to someone else,” Lampinski wrote in the audit.

Wilmington attorney Thomas Foley, representing Long in the matter, argued in a letter to Albence on July 18 that the audit report “misrepresents” the June interview Lampinski had with Long and that the auditor was biased against Long.

Long’s attorneys also disputed allegations that the way the committee publicly reported the payees in campaign finance reports was improper.

“Even though counsel reiterated this point numerous times, Mr. Lampinski refused to accept our position, and kept asking Mr. Long the same question over and over,” Foley wrote to Albence. “For that reason, counsel shut down this line of questioning.”

Similarly, Foley in the letter to Albence disputed Lampinski’s characterization that the Longs used personal credit cards to capture the bonus points associated with expenditures on them.

The attorney said Long made it clear that “points never crossed his mind” when using the cards.

“Mr. Long also underscored that all credit card expenditures were for the benefit of the campaign,” Foley said. “These are just a few examples of Mr. Lampinski’s bias displayed during Dana’s interview and subsequently reflected in his report.”

Trying to keep audit quiet

When Albence flagged Lampinski’s final report for Hall-Long's campaign on July 15, he assured the lieutenant governor that he did not intend to “publicly post or release this report.”

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But he warned that it would be accessible via Freedom of Information Act requests.

Hall-Long and attorneys sought to prevent that disclosure until they had a chance to refute the findings.

In a July 18 letter to Albence, Foley requested that the election commissioner not release the report “to anyone until the campaign can respond and comment as to the factual accuracy of the report.”

And a day prior, Hall-Long in an email to Albence also requested continued confidentiality until the campaign could “discuss our concerns with you,” suggesting that release of the report be denied through the investigatory exemption in state FOIA law.

Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com, or by calling or texting 302-598-5507. Follow her on X at @mandy_fries.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Audit finds Hall-Long's campaign finances 'incomplete, inaccurate, misleading'