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Forensic review finds improprieties in Delaware gubernatorial candidate’s campaign finances
DOVER, Del. — A forensic review commissioned by the state Elections Department has uncovered significant irregularities in the campaign finances of Delaware’s lieutenant governor, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.
The elections department hired Pennsylvania-based Forensic Litigation Consultants in January amid widespread scrutiny of Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign finances. Jeffrey Lampinski, a certified fraud examiner, found, among other things, that Hall-Long and her husband received payments totaling $33,000 more than she allegedly lent to his campaign.
Lampinski, a retired senior FBI executive, also found that Hall-Long’s husband and former campaign treasurer, Dana Long, wrote four campaign checks to himself but falsely reported that they had been written to someone else. Similarly, Long wrote a check to former campaign fundraiser Jennifer Mueller but reported that it had been made out to someone else, he said.
“Why he publicly reported these five expenditures as made to a payee other than the true payee remains unexplained,” Lampinski wrote in a report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press in response to a FOIA request.
Lampinski found that from January 2016 through December 2023, Dana Long wrote 112 checks from the campaign committee account to himself or for cash, and one to his wife. The checks totaled just under $300,000 and should have been reported as campaign expenses. Instead, Lampinski found that 109 were never reported in the initial financial reports, and the other four, payable to Dana Long, were reported as being made out to someone else.
The report also recounts a June 14 interview in which Lampinski asked Dana Long about a note written by Hall-Long and found in a folder labeled “Campaign 2020.” The note read: “2019/2020 filings need to create 2021 and 2022 receipts!”
“When I pointed out that she had written ‘create’ receipts, not ‘collect’ or ‘gather’ receipts, Long said he could not ‘account for her terminology,’” Lampinski wrote.
Hall-Long and her campaign team did not immediately respond to a Thursday email seeking comment. Tom Foley, an attorney for Dana Long, also did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, but he told Election Commissioner Anthony Albence in a July 18 email that Lampinski’s report contained “misrepresentations” about the June 14 interview.
Hall-Long faces New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and former state Environment Secretary Collin O’Mara in the Democratic primary for governor on Sept. 10.
Hall-Long has been under intense scrutiny since September, when she abruptly announced the postponement of a campaign event with Democratic Gov. John Carney that was scheduled to take place the following day, saying she needed to “address a personal and private matter.”
In reality, Hall-Long’s campaign was in disarray after people brought in to lead the campaign discovered major discrepancies while reviewing years of financial reports. The scandal led to the resignations of her campaign manager, chief fundraiser and campaign treasurer — who had replaced Dana Long as treasurer just five months earlier.
Hall-Long announced in October that an accounting firm hired by her campaign had found no irregularities, though she declined to release a copy of that audit. In November, her campaign filed altered financial reports dating back to 2016, allegedly showing about $300,000 in campaign loans that had been improperly reported as expenses instead of loans. Campaign officials said about $200,000 of the loans had been repaid, meaning Hall-Long still owed more than $100,000.
It’s unclear when Hall-Long was informed of Lampinski’s investigation, but Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence notified her in a July 15 email that the report had been completed.
Albence told Hall-Long that he did not intend to refer the matter to the attorney general’s office, but that he expected his committee to “take immediate corrective action” in filing altered campaign finance reports. He also assured Hall-Long that he did not intend to publicly post or release the report, but warned that his office could be compelled to do so pursuant to a FOIA request.
In an email response on July 17, Hall-Long acknowledged that he had received a copy of the report and thanked Albence for keeping the matter confidential.
“I understand that Mr. Long’s attorney will be contacting you separately,” Hall-Long wrote. “Dana’s interview report and notes contain errors and omit material representations made by Dana and the attorneys present during the interview.”
Hall-Long told Albence that a lawyer for his campaign was traveling overseas and that the campaign would need time to respond to the report before it was finalized.
“Therefore, until we can discuss our concerns with you, we ask that the report not be released as part of an exemption for an investigation under Delaware FOIA,” she wrote. “Thank you for your continued confidentiality.”
Albence informed Hall-Long on Tuesday that the report was now final and that his office was legally obligated to comply with FOIA requests.