Forensic review finds improprieties in Delaware gubernatorial candidate’s campaign finances

DOVER, Del. — A forensic investigation commissioned by the state Department of Elections has revealed significant irregularities in the campaign finances of Delaware’s lieutenant governor, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor.

The Elections Division hired Pennsylvania-based Forensic Litigation Consultants in January amid a widespread investigation into Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign finances. Jeffrey Lampinski, a certified fraud examiner, found, among other things, that Hall-Long and her husband had received payments totaling $33,000 more than she had allegedly loaned to her campaign.

Lampinski, a retired FBI official, also discovered that Hall-Long’s husband and former campaign treasurer, Dana Long, wrote four campaign checks to herself but falsely reported them as being made out to someone else. Similarly, Long wrote a check to former campaign fundraiser Jennifer Mueller but reported it as being made out to someone else, he said.

“Why he disclosed these five expenditures as if they were made to a beneficiary other than the actual beneficiary remains unexplained,” Lampinski wrote in a report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press in response to a FOIA request.

Lampinski discovered that from January 2016 through December 2023, Dana Long wrote 112 checks from the campaign committee account to himself or cash, and one to his wife. The checks totaled just under $300,000 and should have been reported as campaign expenses. Instead, Lampinski discovered that 109 were never reported on initial financial reports, and the other four, made payable to Dana Long, were reported as being made to someone else.

The report also details a June 14 interview in which Lampinski asked Dana Long about a note written by Hall-Long that was found in a folder labeled “Campaign 2020.” The note read: “2019/2020 files to be created for 2021 & 2022 coupons!”

“When I pointed out that she had written ‘create’ coupons, not ‘collect’ or ‘collection’ coupons, Long said he ‘could not answer her terminology,’” Lampinski wrote.

Hall-Long and her campaign staff did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday. Tom Foley, an attorney for Dana Long, also did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, but he told Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence in a July 18 email that Lampinski’s report contained “misrepresentations” about the June 14 interview.

Hall-Long will face New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and former state Environment Secretary Collin O’Mara in the Sept. 10 Democratic primary for governor.

Hall-Long has been under intense scrutiny since September, when she abruptly announced that a campaign rally with Democratic Gov. John Carney scheduled for the next day would be postponed, saying she had “a personal, private matter to attend to.”

In reality, Hall-Long’s campaign was in disarray after people hired to run it discovered major discrepancies when reviewing years of financial reports. The scandal led to the resignation 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 wrongdoing, though she declined to release a copy of that audit. In November, her campaign filed amended financial reports dating back to 2016 that reportedly showed about $300,000 in campaign loans that had been incorrectly reported as expenditures rather than loans. Campaign officials claimed that 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 made aware of Lampinski’s investigation, but Election Commissioner Anthony Albence informed her in a July 15 email that the report had been completed.

Albence told Hall-Long that he did not plan to refer the matter to the attorney general’s office, but that he expected her committee to “take expeditious corrective action” by filing amended campaign finance reports. He also assured Hall-Long that he did not plan to make the report public or release it, but warned that his office might have to do so under a FOIA request.

In a July 17 email response, Hall-Long acknowledged receiving 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. “The report and interview notes from Dana’s interview contain errors and omit material statements made by Dana and the attorneys present during the interview.”

Hall-Long told Albence that an attorney for her campaign was traveling out of state and that the campaign would need time to respond to the report before it would be final.

“Therefore, until we can discuss our concerns with you, we request that the report not be released as part of an investigation exemption under the Delaware FOIA,” she wrote. “Thank you for your continued confidentiality.”

Albence told Hall-Long on Tuesday that the report was already final and that his office was legally obligated to comply with FOIA requests.