The Georgia Ethics Fee will proceed to pursue campaign-fund allegations towards a former state insurance coverage commissioner, regardless of a decide’s October ruling that the company had waited too lengthy.
In a case that has been on-again, off-again for years, the fee agreed to just accept one other a part of the executive regulation decide’s choice: The decide discovered that former Commissioner John Oxendine shouldn’t be charged with accepting 10 occasions the authorized restrict on bundled contributions from two insurance coverage corporations when he ran for governor in 2008, in keeping with the Atlanta Journal-Structure newspaper.
The decide, Ronit Walker, stated that the penalties ought to apply solely to donors, not recipients of the bundled contributions, per state regulation. Walker final fall discovered that ethics complaints alleging that Oxendine had used marketing campaign cash for private bills must be dropped, however state regulation permits the Ethics Fee to override the decide’s choice.
The fee will quickly maintain a listening to on the matter, in keeping with information reviews.
“The underside line is John Oxendine took marketing campaign cash and used it to pay the down cost on his home, pay for membership dues at a non-public nation membership, and pay for the lease on his car, amongst different issues,” fee Government Secretary David Emadi stated.
Oxendine has referred to as the circumstances a “waste of taxpayer cash.”
The Journal-Structure reported in 2016 that Oxendine stored $500,000 in leftover cash from his gubernatorial marketing campaign and stored contributions supposed for a attainable Republican runoff and normal election that he by no means ran in after shedding the Republican main. Oxendine filed new reviews in October 2015 exhibiting greater than $700,000 left over, together with $237,000 in loans to his regulation agency.
The fee stated that Oxendine used a part of the loans to make a big down-payment on a home, to lease a Mercedes and Jaguar, add to his retirement account, and pay athletic membership dues, officers stated. Oxendine has argued that loans are permitted below state regulation and marketing campaign rules.
Picture: Oxendine in 2010. (AP Picture/John Amis)
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