AG files complaint against Wilkerson

Dogged by yet another round of charges alleging campaign finance improprieties, State Senator Dianne Wilkerson has vowed to comply with the state Attorney General’s Office.

“We are confident that the outstanding matters will be fully resolved with complete and sufficient documentation,” Wilkerson said in a statement through her attorney Thomas R. Kiley. “Most of the requested documentation listed in the complaint has already been submitted to the Attorney General. We look forward to resolving this matter expeditiously.”

The recent complaint, filed last week by state Attorney General Thomas Reilly and the head of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, stems from alleged campaign violations during the 2000 and 2001 campaigns and include failures to report $26,935 in political donations and failure to explain $18,277 paid to her by her political committee.

“These violations suggest that these reimbursements may have been used for personal use,” the complaint alleges. The reimbursements included $15,550 in “consulting fees,” nearly $5,000 of which went to Wilkerson’s two sons.

The complaint comes on the heels of a federal tax conviction on campaign finance violations in 1998. That conviction led to an agreement which Wilkerson paid $11,500 in civil penalties and served six months house arrest.

“It is unfortunate that Senator Wilkerson allowed this situation to reach this point, but I am committed to do what is necessary to make sure that our campaign finance laws are enforced,” Reilly said in a statement. “This is a very serious matter…It calls for a full accounting of all unreported payments to and from her campaign, repayments to the Commonwealth, an injunction preventing her from any further reimbursements from her campaign, as well as stiff penalties.”

What made matters worse this time around, Reilly and the campaign finance office explained, is that Wilkerson was given numerous opportunities to explain the discrepancies found in her 2000 and 2001 campaign finance reports.

Those conversations continued until August when, according to the lawsuit, Wilkerson told the state “we have discovered a very large leather satchel or documents, left by Ajibola Osinubi, all related to the year 2000.” Osinubi was Wilkerson’s campaign treasurer until 2002.

“The prolonged non-compliance of Wilkerson and the Committee with these requirements…has made it impossible for (the state) to determine …how and from whom Wilkerson, as a member of the Senate, raised campaign funds, and to whom and for what purpose the Committee paid those funds out,” the complaint said.