Missouri Democrats Pay $110,000 Civil Penalty

Washington -- The Federal Election Commission (FEC) today announced a conciliation agreement with the Missouri Democratic State Committee, in which the party agreed to pay a $110,000 civil penalty and retain outside consultants to review the party’s compliance procedures, and train committee staff and volunteers.  Additionally, within 90 days of the agreement, the party will file amendments to its 2004 election cycle reports with the FEC, and maintain and submit to the FEC, upon request, detailed documentation supporting those amendments. The party also agreed to retain an independent firm to audit its compliance with federal campaign finance laws in 2005 and 2006.

            This agreement stems from FEC findings of multiple violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) during the 1999-2000 election cycle, including failure to report the receipt and transfer of excessive contributions, acceptance of prohibited contributions and failure to report their receipt and transfer, misstatements of the party’s financial activity and failure to report debts.  The case was initiated following an FEC audit.  The committee has been audited by the FEC after each election cycle from 1996 through 2002 due to irregularities in its financial reporting.

Specifically, the Missouri Democratic State Central Committee violated the law during the 2000 election cycle by:

• failing to report the receipt and transfer to the party’s nonfederal account of $176,125 in excessive contributions;
• failing to report $159,500 in prohibited corporate and labor contributions;
• accepting $69,500 in prohibited contributions;
• misreporting their receipts, disbursements and cash-on-hand;
• failing to disclose outstanding debts totaling over $620,000; and
• failing to report the receipt of a $5,000 contribution.

*There are four administrative stages to the FEC enforcement process:

It requires the votes of at least four of the six Commissioners to take any action. The FEC can close a case at any point after reviewing a complaint.  If a violation is found and conciliation cannot be reached, then the FEC can institute a civil court action against a respondent.                                                     

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