AFC CHALLENGES
Elections and suspicious activity
Candidates for elected office in the U . S .― whether on the local , state or federal level ― are required to report the donations and expenditures of their campaign on periodic campaign finance disclosures . These are filed with the state board of elections on the local and state level and the Federal Election Commission ( FEC ) for federal office .
Filing requirements also extend to political action committees ( PACs ) and the numerous local political party committees ( committee accounts ).
Election and campaign finance law can be complicated , time-consuming and extremely frustrating , particularly at the local level . Many local candidates may not want to spend the funds necessary to engage an experienced campaign treasurer to manage the process , if one can even be found .
Establishing a list
One of the first things to do when running for an elected office is to open a campaign bank account . A standard checking account is the normal deposit vehicle but there is no prohibition against a savings account . Under certain circumstances , a personal checking or savings account can be substituted if the amounts raised and expensed stay below limited monetary thresholds .
Financial Institutions ( FIs ) should establish a separate list for campaign finance accounts . When establishing a list , remember to link the personal accounts of the candidates to their campaign finance accounts . Both accounts should be reviewed at the same time to ensure that activity is not commingled , potentially hiding a donation or expense . The state board of elections / FEC publish candidates ’ financial disclosures online and account transactions should match the disclosures .
So how should a list be constructed if you are starting from scratch , and what exactly are you looking for that would prompt a suspicious activity report ( SAR )? The best approach is to first identify every current ( incumbent ) elected official and cross-check them with your customer base for an existing campaign finance account .
There are two ways to approach creating such a list . Almost every municipality has a website with the names of those elected . This can be a rather lengthy process with a wide geographic footprint . A quicker solution may be to access the state board of elections or the FEC website , which will have a list of all campaign finance accounts on record , thereby minimizing any errors that can occur through a manual search .
The scheme
Over the last decade , corruption and misconduct by U . S . elected officials and candidates have skyrocketed . The 2024 Corruption Perception Index ranks the U . S . number 28 , which itself is quite disturbing . 1 Every month we seem to hear about a high-profile elected official embroiled in some type of monetary or political chicanery .
30 acamstoday . org