Posts Tagged ‘Dianne Feinstein’
California bookkeeper — with at least 398 bank accounts — may be the “Bernie Madoff of campaign finance treasurers”
In Democratic circles, the 58-year-old bookkeeper with at least 398 bank accounts for political campaigns and nonprofit groups had a reputation for being prompt and responsive.
Neighbors and associates say there’s nothing in Kinde Durkee’s background, demeanor or lifestyle to suggest that she “masterminded a multimillion dollar fraudulent scheme,” as U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein charged in a Sept. 23 lawsuit. While Feinstein reported $5 million in cash to the Federal Election Commission as of June 30, the bank found only $662,100 on Sept. 21, according to court documents…
The scope of the alleged embezzlements from Durkee- controlled funds for federal politicians is the largest at least since the Federal Election Campaign Act became law in 1972, said Kent Cooper, a former Federal Election Commission official.
“There’s been no one else who even comes close,” Cooper, who now runs the money-in-politics database Capitol Hill Access…
Feinstein’s campaign also sued First California Bank, the operating unit of Westlake Village, California-based First California Financial Group Inc. (FCAL), where Durkee had 398 accounts. Chief Executive Officer Chong Guk Kum didn’t respond to voice mail messages requesting comment. Gary Horgan, a company lawyer, said in an e-mail that the bank would not comment.
Things started to unravel for Durkee in 2010, when the California Fair Political Practices Commission found irregularities while auditing the political finances of Jerome Horton, the chairman of the Board of Equalization, the state’s tax administrator. Horton said Durkee “acknowledged her mistakes” during the audit and agreed to pay the commission’s $13,000 fine and his legal bills.
“I had no knowledge of the magnitude of her fraud or the extent to which others were involved until I read it in the paper,” Horton wrote in an e-mail message to Bloomberg News.
After auditing another Durkee-managed account, the commission in November 2010 called the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Public Corruption Squad in Sacramento, according to court documents. In an affidavit, FBI Special Agent Reginald Coleman said it appeared that Durkee moved money from campaign accounts to her company’s bank accounts and then transferred other candidates’ funds to cover shortfalls. She covered up her actions by filing false disclosure forms, according to the affidavit…
Several lawyers for Durkee-managed campaign accounts said they’re mystified about where any misappropriated money might have gone, noting that Durkee [and her hubbie, her staff] gave no signs of flaunting wealth.
“I find the whole thing remarkable,” said Stephen Kaufman, the lawyer for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and several other Durkee clients, in an interview. “We have no idea where all the money went.”
Surely does sound like Madoff all over again – especially everyone being astounded at the revelations. Apparently California bureaucrats are as diligent as the SEC at oversight.
RTFA. Example after example of folks thinking they had millions in the bank when they really had a tenth of what Kinde Durkee’s paperwork told them. Personally, I can never understand how people can become divorced from their funds. Even my little checking account gets checked online every month when my social security check is due to arrive.
Sen. Feinstein backs bill to repeal federal statute limiting marriage
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, announced Tuesday a bill to repeal the federal law that defines marriage as a “legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and that allows states to reject legal same sex marriages from other states.
The Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, passed both the House and the Senate in 1996.
Feinstein said she is one of only 14 senators who voted against the legislation at the time. “I thought even then, this is unconstitutional and wrong. Well, today it’s unconstitutional, I believe, and wrong,” she said in a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington.
She said her bill would “strike the Defense of Marriage Act from law and would free the government to allow for the same type of benefits they allow for married couples to also be applied to same-sex couples…”
“Believe it or not, there are over 1,000 federal laws and protections that are afforded to married couples but are not afforded to legally married same-sex couples in any of the states that have approved same-sex marriage,” she said.
Kathleen Cumiskey and Robin Garber were among three same-sex couples who joined Feinstein at the news conference. They said they traveled from New York’s Staten Island with a stack of papers they take with them nearly everywhere.
The couple was married in Toronto, Canada, in 2006 and their home state of New York legally recognized their marriage in 2008. But when they travel across state lines, they said, they have to bring with them paperwork in case of an emergency.
“We traveled from New York City last night and had to bring with us our box of documents,” Garber said holding up a marbled-cover box. “Wherever we go we need to be able to prove the legal documentation of our relationship. We need to be able to prove that we are legally responsible for each other, that we have the legal right to make decisions for each other.”
She added, “We find it really incredible that we can travel halfway around the world — we can go to Spain, we can go to Ireland, we can go to South Africa — and have our marriage recognized and respected, but when we travel 15 miles from our own front door that is not the case and we need our box of documents.”
Overdue. Like so much civil rights law in the land – it’s time to dump the hatred and fear and support equal opportunities for all citizens.
Should be a cutting edge showdown between the Right side of the issue from homophobes all the way to the simply intellectually lazy opposing change – versus official Democrats including the president who has said he will endorse the “Respect for Marriage” Act, progressives and conservatives with a commitment to the Bill of Rights.
For the rich and powerful, views trump alternative energy
Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in Congress on Monday to protect a million acres of the Mojave Desert in California by scuttling some 13 big solar plants and wind farms planned for the region.
But before the bill to create two new Mojave national monuments has even had its first hearing, the California Democrat has largely achieved her aim. Regardless of the legislation’s fate, her opposition means that few if any power plants are likely to be built in the monument area, a complication in California’s effort to achieve its aggressive goals for renewable energy.
A few of the rationales about environment are perfectly reasonable. But, understand from the git-go, this is about not “spoiling” the view for those who pass by – then return home to the Bay Area or L.A..
Developers of the projects have already postponed several proposals or abandoned them entirely. The California agency charged with planning a renewable energy transmission grid has rerouted proposed power lines to avoid the monument.
Look at the photo above. There already are power lines crossing the area. Why not new ones?
