The Wake County (Raleigh, NC) Register of Deeds office is embroiled in scandal, with 4 employees accused of stealing $1.3 million over a six year period.
It turns out that the Register of Deeds — a local (county-level) elected position in NC — was using part of her ill-gotten gains to make contributions to the RNC, the NCGOP, Wake County Republican organizations, and numerous Republican candidates including former governor Pat McCrory.
Campaign finance reports show that Laura Riddick, the former Wake register of deeds charged with embezzling $900,000 from the office, donated at least $23,589 to Republican candidates and organizations since she was first elected 20 years ago.
Of those donations since 1996, $9,680 went to the Wake County Republican Party, $2,361 went to Wake County Republican Women, $2,000 went to the Republican National Committee and about $8,718 went to 19 candidates.
www.newsobserver.com/…
This accounts for a little more than half of the $2.3 million missing from the office.
Riddick stepped down earlier this year as the State Bureau of Investigation began trying to find out what happened to $2.3 million missing from the register’s office. Investigators haven’t been able to account for what happened to nearly $1.2 million of the missing money.
www.newsobserver.com/…
News of the donations drew a strong reaction from the N.C. Democratic Party.
“Every single Republican politician that took this tainted money should return it to the taxpayers right now,” said Robert Howard, a spokesman for the party. “Anything less and they’ll be just as dirty as the money they took.”
Of the candidates Riddick donated to, former Gov. Pat McCrory received the most: $2,250. He couldn’t be reached for comment. Riddick gave a total of $1,500 to former Wake County commissioner Paul Coble, who ran for U.S. Congress.
www.wakegov.com/…
The office collects roughly $14 million a year in fees for various records such as real estate transactions, with many transactions made in cash. This seems to have been too much of a temptation for this Republican-leaning crook.
It will be fun watching Republican groups and candidates scramble to return the money. I can’t imagine that the Wake County GOP has that $9,680 just lying around unspent.