Games of chance have always been risky, but they also just got very costly for the Michigan Democratic Party.
The party has agreed to pay a hefty $500,000 civil fine to the Federal Election Commission — one of the largest penalties every levied by that agency — after an internal investigation of its bingo operation, which was used for political fund-raising, found numerous examples of shoddy record keeping, contributions that exceeded limits and campaign finance reporting inaccuracies.
It’s a fine that far exceeds the average penalty levied against candidates and political organizations over the years. The highest average fine over the past 40 years was $179,499 in 2006.
“It’s a significant fine,” said former Democratic Party chairman Lon Johnson, who started the internal investigation of the party’s bingo game operations in 2014 and turned that investigation over to the FEC.
AAN Staff
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