WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- The National Republican Congressional Committee said Thursday it suspects its former treasurer may have stolen "several hundred thousand dollars."
The NRCC also acknowledged officials had found discrepancies in the books involving more than $1 million, The Washington Post reported. Former committee treasurer Christopher Ward, who was dismissed in January, may have diverted committee funds into his own accounts, the report said.
"Based on analysis conducted to date, it appears likely that over a period of several years Ward made several hundred thousand dollars in unauthorized transfers of NRCC funds to outside committees whose bank accounts he had access to, including joint fundraising committees in which the NRCC participated," an NRCC memo said Thursday.
The NRCC initiated an internal investigation and contacted the FBI in January after learning Ward apparently submitted fabricated financial statements to the NRCC's bank.
One discrepancy NRCC said it found was the amount of cash on hand reported to the Federal Election Commission at the end of 2006. The figure was about $990,000 more than the committee actually had, the Post reported.
In addition to the FBI investigation, the NRCC hired a law firm to conduct an internal probe, and that firm hired PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct a forensic audit of the committee's books.
