Press Release: 2019-07-11
Former Uxbridge senator forfeits $90,000 to resolve campaign finance issues
Former Uxbridge State Sen. Richard Moore and his treasurer entered into a disposition agreement
with OCPF to resolve issues related to the non-disclosure of approximately $175,000 in credit card
expenditures made by the committee and to filing false campaign finance reports.
The committee, from 2008 to 2015, made $181,942 in payments on five credit cards, of which
only $7,253 was disclosed on campaign finance reports.
To resolve the matter, Moore made a personal payment of $48,082 to the state’s general fund, and
disgorged the balance of his campaign account ($477).
Moore also forgave $41,440 in outstanding loans that he made personally to his committee.
The total forfeiture is $90,000.
“This agreement vividly illustrates the major problem with the non-depository system of
disclosing campaign finance activity,” said OCPF Director Michael Sullivan. “Legislative candidates, like
statewide candidates, would be far better served by using the depository system.”
The depository system combines candidate reporting with independent third party disclosure of
activity by the candidate’s bank on a regular basis.
“If the Moore Committee had been required to disclose its activity through the depository system,
the non-disclosure of the Moore Committee’s expenditures would never have occurred and their reports
would have been accurate,” Sullivan said.
According to the disposition agreement, the Moore Committee filed reports with OCPF that did
not fully disclose its expenditures, resulting in discrepancies between the ending balances disclosed on
campaign finance reports and the actual ending balance in the committee bank account. For example, in
2018, the Moore Committee disclosed a balance of $165,495 on campaign finance reports, but the bank
account held only $537.
The following are OCPF’s conclusions, according to the disposition agreement:
The campaign finance reports filed by the Moore Committee between 2009 and 2018
failed to accurately reflect committee activity.
Committee funds were used from 2008 to 2015 to make $181,942 in payments to five
different credit cards, only one of which was solely a committee card. The other four
were held personally, but were also used for campaign activity.
Moore and his treasurer (who is married to the candidate) commingled committee and
personal expenditures by using the same credit cards for committee and personal use.
Moore and his treasurer acknowledged that they knew the committee’s campaign finance
reports were not accurate, but filed false reports because they did not know how to rectify
the situation.
The committee failed to maintain required records, such as bank and credit card
statements.
Moore, as part of the disposition agreement, dissolved the committee. He was a state senator from
1996 to 2015, and a state representative from 1977 to 1994.
The disposition agreement, available here, was signed by Sullivan, Moore and Moore’s treasurer,
Joanne Moore.
A disposition agreement is a voluntary written agreement entered into between the subject of a
review and OCPF, in which the subject agrees to take certain specific actions.