Charges Filed Against Hobbs Over Campaign Contributions
- Print print this page
- Discuss 17 comments, Blog about
Advertisement
BY JOHN CHAPPELL
Staff Writer
District Attorney Maureen Krueger filed criminal charges Thursday morning against former state Sen. Fred Hobbs over political campaign contributions.
Documents she filed with the court allege that Hobbs made illegal corporate contributions to the 2008 political campaigns of Gov. Beverly Perdue and outgoing N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight. They say Hobbs, acting as an officer of his company, Hobbs, Upchurch & Associates, "made or caused to be" illegal contributions. The charges are misdemeanors
At the same time, in Raleigh, the State Board of Elections fined Hobbs $150,000 for illegally "making political contributions in the name of another" as a result of a settlement agreement with him.
The state board hearing Thursday morning came in response to a complaint filed by state Republican Party Chairman Tom Fetzer, who said political donations by employees of Hobbs, Upchurch & Associates looked suspicious.
Speaking to the board on his client's behalf, Raleigh attorney Michael Weisel stressed that Hobbs had cooperated fully, had disclosed everything, provided all supporting documentation and provided interviews whose transcripts were part of the record before the board.
"I believe that everything has been fully disclosed," Weisel said. "Certainly it will come out after the (criminal) matter is resolved with Moore County."
The state board has been assisting Krueger in her investigation, but few details have so far been made public.
"Our file has been closed due to the criminal nature of it," state board Chairman Larry Leake said. "It is in the hands of the district attorney. Our staff will concur that we have obtained everything that we believe to be out there. The information that is being relied upon by Ms. Krueger is information that was totally developed by this board.
"She's expressed nothing but appreciation toward the board's staff and the board and has not indicated any concerns about the quality of the investigation."
Hobbs had funneled about $148,000 over the course of 11 years to various campaigns, Weisel said, as delineated in the report.
"In the terms of our settlement discussions, Mr. Hobbs takes full and complete responsibility for 'contributions in the name of another,'" Weisel said.
He handed over a personal check from Hobbs for $150,000 to the attorney for the board to pay the civil penalty, according to the settlement agreement.
In Carthage, Krueger had just filed the class 2 misdemeanor charges against Hobbs. She served them on upon P. Wayne Robbins, attorney for Hobbs, Krueger said in a certificate of service filed with the court Thursday morning.
Hobbs could not be reached for comment. He was on his way to Costa Rica with his son on a long-planned trip, his office said. Before leaving, he wrote a letter to members of the board of Partners for Progress to advise them of the situation. Hobbs chairs the board of the economic development organization.
"The use of the contributions by me and others was intended to promote the election and/or re-election of Democratic candidates to the North Carolina State Senate," Hobbs said in his letter. "As you are certainly aware, Moore County is not a very fertile fundraising territory for Democratic candidates, so in order to help I asked various members of my staff to voluntarily make contributions to Sen. Basnight and explained to them that I would reimburse them for those contributions.
"At no time were any of my employees forced or coerced in any way to make the contributions and they were all told if they were not comfortable doing this to just tell me so."
Hobbs insists in the letter that neither he nor his company received anything out of it in return for the contributions.
"I never asked for any benefits from these contributions nor did I ever receive any," he said in the letter. "Hobbs, Upchurch & Associates never asked for nor received any political favoritism for its clients involving applications for grants and/or federal and state loans. These facts have been documented in the settlement agreement that I have reached with the State Board of Elections, which will publicly state that at no time was any attempt made by me or my firm to influence any office holder or use any influence on any grant or loan application."
It is illegal for corporations to donate to political campaigns. Individuals are forbidden to contribute more than $4,000 per candidate per election. It is against the law to pass money to a campaign through another person, as Hobbs admitted doing. Purdue's and Basnight's campaigns will have to return the money.
"I am personally embarrassed that this has occurred," Hobbs said in his letter. "I am equally ashamed that I engaged in this behavior. Having served in the Senate and knowing the cost of such endeavors, I was attempting to help elect Democratic senators. That fact does not justify my actions, but it gives you some insight into my mind-set at the time of the contributions."
Contact John Chappell at jfchappell@gmail.com.
More like this story
Advertisement
Comments
GeorgiaMan 2 years, 5 months ago
Just another example of politics as usual - Kind of makes you wonder why Hobbs & Upchurch has done so well with various state jobs over the years. Oh well maybe they can help Basnight pick up plastic bags at the beach. Hard jail time is the only cure for this disease. Will anyone ever go to jail for breaking the law doing these types of political games, or is the law only for those without friends in high places.
MichaelFlorence 2 years, 5 months ago
These comments are not anonymous - I live right here in Moore County. The arrogance of Mr. Hobbs in making statements to defend his position of giving illegal funds to Governors Easley, Perdue and Senator Basnight should make us all sad. The law is very clear on this matter. I hope that Ms. Krueger will prosecute Mr. Hobbs to the fullest extent she can. These types of actions just proves the point that the Golden Rule still applies: Those with the Gold make their own rules. I hope that every State, County and Local contract of Hobbs, Upchurch that has been awarded to them over the past 10 years is reexamined to see if any preferred treatment was given due to these contributions.
sneakdeac 2 years, 5 months ago
Just like the Easly case. These guys knew they were doing wrong but didn't care and didn't think they would get caught. Money buys them out of it. Any regular Joe would probably have served time. If I were a county commissioner or city councilman I would never let them have another contract. I hope his lack of true punishment results in lost business for his company. I hate it for the employees but surely they also knew what they were doing.
temperanceprudence 2 years, 5 months ago
"I never asked for any benefits from these contributions nor did I ever receive any," What a CROCK! These politicians and their money cronies - if Mr. Hobbs did "not expect nor hope to receive any benefit", why did he waste his time, the time of his staff, and the firm's money in this way repeatedly?!?!?! I would like to have a copy of the referenced letter to fertilize my rose bushes - bet that amount of fertilizer will provide some rose blooms as big as a cat's head. And, let's do the numbers - if he has procured Approx $500 Million in project grants (from his website) from the agencies overseen by these officials, and the project grants allow 10% to engineer's fees - a common amount, that leaves oh, say, $50 million to his firm in fees. Now, let's say the firm makes a margin of 10% on the project fees, a common margin for design firms, then that is a "mere, paltry" $5 Million that went in his pocket... wait, I'd like to sign up for some of that - so, invest $150,000 fine + approx that much in illegal contributions = $5 million return !!! Pretty nice ROI!!! How can the rest of us sign up for some of this action!?!?! Sure beats what the bank is paying me on CD's right now.
More interesting to us locally - now that these facts are known, will the MooCo Board of Commissioners have the courage to conduct any examination of this firm, and open up the records as to how this firm was chosen for the $30 million waste plant expansion projects as well as other projects they have awarded to these folks???
theonewithsense 2 years, 5 months ago
Hobbs will continue to get many government contracts with no other bidders. They are awarded contracts as "the most qualified". Fees are negotiated after the contract with Hobbs has been awarded.
theonewithsense 2 years, 5 months ago
realbldr - that's how they are chosen. I'm not saying they are more qualified, I am saying that Moore county determines that Hobbs is the most qualified to do the work, so Moore county awards the contract to Hobbs based upon their judgment. That is how Hobbs gets the majority of their government contracts. Government agencies are not allowed to choose engineers based on monetary bids they must choose the most qualified engineer and the determination of who is most qualified is left up entirely to the agency.
mumstheword 2 years, 5 months ago
@ theonewithsense.....don't waste your time trying to reason with pure worthlessness
truthmatterstome2 2 years, 5 months ago
Fred, we are smarter than you give us credit for. You have tried to evade laws for 11 years (that we know of) and you feel badly about that, or rather you feel badly because you were caught. Your statement; that you never received any benefit for the illegal contrabutions, is a complete joke. Why don't you make that statement when you are standing before a judge pleading for mercy. The most unfortunate thing is that the charges against you are rather minor. You and so many other democrats have cheated the public, and you should have to pay dearly for it.
temperanceprudence 2 years, 5 months ago
As to the statement regarding 'they have to select the most qualified,' that is not universally true. I would encourage all interested to take a moment and review the following State of NC statute - NCGS 143-64.32 I think that will shed light in some interesting corners.
In addition, the law does not prohibit engineers from trying to cozy up to and/or lobbying an elected body in an effort to sway the table to favor the engineer, so it would be naive at best to think all politicians do the honorable thing and ignore entreaties, favors, buddy-buddy compliments,etc from persons of the type being discussed here when they (politicians) are considering award of an engineering or architectural contract ( the types of contracts covered by the above-mentioned NCGS)
It may be ( and I hope it is) that the MooCo Board and staff have not been swayed by such antics, but it would seem a review would be in the best of interest of all parties, including public confidence - clear the air, then either deal with the issues be it rogue employees, unethical politicians - or the public's confidence is restored by a clean bill of health on this matter and energies can be focused on other tasks.
temperanceprudence 2 years, 5 months ago
@theonewithsense - your comment is spot-on - the local governing body and their staff can deem whomever they want as being "most qualified," even, as you correctly noted, if there are other firms that may be stronger in terms of experience or talent.
That said, it sometimes seems that firms are chosen (in general wrt this comment, not necessarily directed at Hobbs) for projects where it is hard to see how they could have been deemed "most qualified" based on a review of their credentials alone...that's why it would seem prudent to clear the air given the amount of work Hobbs has done for MooCo and the sad commentary of this story thus far - and it appears to have yet a few more chapters to unfold....and a sad sidebar to all of this is the effect on the reputation of the firm and by extension, Hobbs' employees - appears that only a small few of the many employees in the company engaged in this chincanery with Mr. Hobbs, but his mischief will taint the public's view of them all - not a good morale booster.
SoPinesNo1 2 years, 5 months ago
Engineerning Services are not awarded to the lowest bidder. The process for procuring engineering services is called competitive negotiation. It's a qualifications based process not a cost based process.
I would expect that many of the jailmates have problems with understanding this, after all, most post that the 27 million dollar jail/detention center costs 55 million dollars.
Those that think everything should be based on awards to the lowest bidder should follow their own advice the next time they need surgery. Go seek the cheapest surgeon, not the most qualified.
BitterEXdemocrackkk 2 years, 5 months ago
YES! Happy to see that additional charges are forthcoming! Hobbs Upchurch should NEVER be allowed ANY state engineering contracts.
This kind of corruption is rampant in the NC democrat party - the criminal organization that is disguised as a political party - the ORIGINAL party of SLAVERY!
STRIVE to be SMARTER than the EVIL CORRUPT NC democrackkks WANT you to BE! THEY ARE HEINOUS CONTROLLING PEOPLE who have RUINED our once great state! Hobbs needs to serve PRISON TIME!!!
None 2 years, 5 months ago
SoPinesNo1 says...December 10, 2010 at 7:53 p.m.
"the jailmates have problems with understanding this, after all, most post that the 27 million dollar jail/detention center costs 55 million dollars."
First, I see no correlation between your thread and the story line.
Secondly, you continue your diatribe regarding numbers submitted to the Moore County Board of Commissioners and county finance by DBC FINANCE.
Sep 30, 2010 11:58 am Prepared by DBC Finance Moore County, North Carolina Limited Obligation Bonds, Series 2010 Final Pricing - September 30, 2010 Dated Date 10/07/2010 Delivery Date 10/07/2010
Total debt service is: $55,264,585.01
Perhaps your misunderstanding of the amounts submitted should be qualified with DBC Finance and not those with higher levels of education who can read and understand debt ratios as well as read number values.
None 2 years, 5 months ago
BitterEXdemocrackkk says...December 11, 2010 at 3:56 a.m.
"the criminal organization that is disguised as a political party - the ORIGINAL party of SLAVERY!"
Could that party have been the Federalist Party? Recall the 2/5ths vote?