Former Shays for Congress Campaign Manager Michael Sohn has been arrested by the FBI following a lengthy investigation into charges that Mr. Sohn embezzled campaign funds.
After Shays failed re-election bid in 2008, it came to light that there were major problems with the campaign’s finances. Speculation quickly focused on Mr. Sohn, who had moved back and forth between Shays’s campaign and professional staff since 2002.
In February 2009, the Shays campaign filed amended reports with the Federal Elections Commission that revealed nearly $200,000 in “unauthorized charges” that were attributed to Sohn.
The charges ranged from tickets to Red Sox baseball games to expensive dinners at prominent Washington, D.C. restaurants in addition to nearly $90,000 in cash withdrawals.
The incident left the former Congressman with nearly $200,000 in debts and obligations in his campaign account, which he is unable to close until all debts are repaid. Since the deficit stems from the 2008 cycle, Shays is not allowed to tap his top contributors for help paying off the debts.
The Shays FEC report filed in October revealed that the campaign continues to have nearly $200,000 in debts – which now includes more than $100,000 in legal bills.
UPDATE: Sohn is being charged with twelve crimes, including embezzlement, filing false campaign committee reports, and federal tax fraud. If convicted, he could pay up to $1 million in fines and go to jail for up to twenty years.
14 responses so far ↓
What a disaster. I wonder if Shays would still hold the seat if he didn’t have such an incompetent and potentially criminal campaign manager.
Only if the money was used to buy votes in Bridgeport.
Luckily Shays now has a six figure job on a government oversight board…
Here’s a question for everyone. The AP article states that the embezzlement occurred during both the 2008 and 2006 campaigns. If Sohn was ripping off the campaign in 2006, how come no one discovered that $40,000-$50,000 was missing?
Sounds like Sohn deserves a couple of years in jail. But Shays deserves an “F” grade as well. If checks and balances had been in place, this kind of thieving could never have happened.
Considering Shays lost CT-04 by only 2489 votes that $200k might have made a significant difference in the final outcome.
Money by itself doesnt make any difference in a race…ask President John Connally and President Phil Gramm
Bill,
Explain how? Another media buy (so we could see the desperate Obama/McCain commercial fifty more times)? Shays lost because Obama’s (half) black. I bet there were 2489 first time Bridgeport Voters who were told (I witnessed this first hand) by the moderators that the first two ballot questions were optional and they had to fill the rest out for their votes to count. That is a true story.
Keyword was “might”. Nearly 300,000 voted in the 4th.
“Sounds like Sohn deserves a couple of years in jail. But Shays deserves an ‘F’ grade as well. If checks and balances had been in place, this kind of thieving could never have happened.”
Wow. Guess they didn’t teach that whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing at Yale, huh, PoopyScoopy?
Poops, we all know you have a special place in your heart for Chrissy Shays, but perhaps you read the Courant article where it notes Sohn manufactured false bank statements to mislead the treasurer.
Of course, I’m sure that if you did read that, you would come back and post a follow-up comment to correct yourself since you’re quite a man of integrity…..
actually Shays lost to Himes by about 12,000 votes.
See the link for the official results. Ms Bysiewicz was off by about 10,000 votes on election night, and for a few weeks afterward. Par for the course there.
I recollect that Shelton recorded all its votes for Himes originally in error with the SotS, then adjusted a few weeks later, thus the discrepancy
Mr. Buckley,
you are overlooking the fact that Himes was also on the Working Families line where he got 9k+ votes.
Yes, you are correct.
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