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- Someone stole almost $5,000 from Rep. Mikie Sherrill's congressional campaign.
- A check intended for a "program advertisement" was intercepted by a fraudster and cashed.
- Many campaigns fall victim to fraud, which totaled at least $2.7 million during the 2020 cycle.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
The campaign committee of Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey appears to have been scammed out of nearly $5000, falling victim to check fraud.
In response to requests for additional information from the commission, Sherill's campaign treasurer explained in a pair of letters that the campaign mailed a check for $4,900, intended for a "program advertisement," that was "intercepted and altered by an unknown person."
In a routine set of financial disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commision in April, Sherill's committee listed a $4,900 check received by Laniah Gibbs on January 20 that included a note that read "under investigation – fraudulent check." The committee later amended that filing in June, now listing it as fraudulent with a note that read, "fraudulent check."
The committee then indicated that the value of the $4,900 check was refunded to the committee on June 9th in its original July quarterly report.
"The committee immediately alerted the bank that the check had been altered both with respect to the payee and the dollar amount and requested that the bank open an investigation," one of the letters reads. The treasurer also wrote that Sherrill's commitee was "implementing a fraud protection service whereby all checks that are presented must be manually reviewed by the committee before they are paid."
In a brief interview at the US Capitol on Tuesday, Rep. Sherill said that she was aware of the theft but declined to comment further. Sherill's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the theft, the New Jersey Democrat's campaign should be just fine- according to her most recent reports filed with the FEC, she has over $4 million in cash on hand, and as a swing-district representative, she's likely to receive even more suppot from Democratic committees in the future.
Sherill's committee is not the only campaign committee to have fallen victim to this kind of theft-- Insider reported on Monday that Rep. Dan Crenshaw's committee had also been robbed of roughly $5,000 dollars by an unknown fraudster.
Financial crimes against federal political committees - check washing, cybertheft, credit card fraud, forgery, even petty cash drawer raids - in fact happen more than most Americans might think.
And Insider reported in February that at least $2.7 million was stolen from federal political committees during the 2020 election cycle, including $71,000 from President Joe Biden's campaign.