Sharpton Fined $285K by FEC as Result of NLPC Complaint

FALLS CHURCH, Va., April 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Al Sharpton and his group, the National Action Network (NAN), have been fined $285,000 by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for violating a host of election laws during Sharpton's 2004 presidential campaign during which he received 2% of the Democratic primary vote.

National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), which filed Complaints against Sharpton on February 2, 2004 and February 6, 2004, was notified of the FEC action last week and made it public today. NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm reacted by saying, "We are pleased that the FEC has ruled on our Complaint and found that Sharpton ran an 'off the books' presidential campaign."

Previously, the FEC ordered Sharpton to return $100,000 in taxpayer matching funds, and denied him an additional $79,000 for which he qualified, for the 2004 campaign.

Also previously, Sharpton was fined $5,500 for late filing of disclosure documents reports as a result of a separate Complaint filed by NLPC on April 18, 2003.

The February 2, 2004 Complaint cited information that Sharpton may have visited over 100 cities related to his presidential campaign in 2002 and 2003. This extensive political travel was not reflected anywhere in Sharpton's FEC filings. NLPC alleged that NAN might have underwritten this travel with large undisclosed gifts from unnamed donors.

The $285,000 fine is actually a civil penalty under a conciliation agreement between Sharpton and his groups and the FEC. According to the agreement:

         ...Sharpton 2004 kept poor records of its activities and
         expenditures, which often resulted in NAN or other entities paying
         for travel expenses incurred by the campaign.

         It was the practice to charge all travel expenses to Sharpton's
         American Express charge card. The card was then paid using multiple
         accounts owned by Sharpton, NAN and/or the Committee.

The agreement describes $509,188 in campaign-related expenses on Sharpton's American Express card. His campaign committee paid $121,996, leaving $387,192 in illegal payments from other sources, including $65,000 from "unknown sources."

The FEC also found that fast food mogul named La-Van Hawkins, who is now incarcerated, made excessive in-kind contributions to Sharpton by hosting a fundraiser at his Atlanta home in 2003.

To download pdfs of the conciliation agreement and NLPC's Complaints, go to www.nlpc.org.

NLPC promotes ethics in public life, and sponsors the Government Integrity Project.

         ...Sharpton 2004 kept poor records of its activities and
         expenditures, which often resulted in NAN or other entities paying
         for travel expenses incurred by the campaign.

         It was the practice to charge all travel expenses to Sharpton's
         American Express charge card. The card was then paid using multiple
         accounts owned by Sharpton, NAN and/or the Committee.