The 2024 election is now over, and as a result political parties are already looking to the next election, and fundraising for it. So, it’s worth reviewing to where such fundraising can lead, particularly when it’s the left trying to rake in large sums. Back in the summer of 2022, in a story we missed at the time, a top Democratic official in New Orleans was caught defrauding donors on a massive scale and pleaded guilty to the charges.

Such is what the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced in a press release at the time, noting that a former state senator and then-chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, referred to in the release as “Political Party A,” had defrauded donors of huge amounts of campaign contributions over a nearly decade long scheme.

Beginning, the press release noted, “The United States Attorney’s Office announced that former Louisiana State Senator and Chair of State Political Party “A”, Karen Carter Peterson, from New Orleans, Louisiana, pleaded guilty as charged today before United States District Judge Sarah S. Vance to a one-count bill of information charging her with wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1343 and 2.”

Continuing, the release noted, “According to court documents, Peterson served as a Louisiana State Senator for the 5th District from about 2010 until about April 8, 2022, and as the Chair of State Political Party A between about 2012 and 2020. As a Louisiana State Senator, Peterson formed and maintained a campaign organization, the “Karen Carter Peterson Campaign Fund (“KCPCF”),” to solicit and raise campaign funds from individual and corporate donors.”

But she was already using solicited campaign funds for her personal benefit: “The campaign funds were solicited based upon the representations and premise that the funds would be used to facilitate Peterson’s reelection for the position of State Senator. In the course of soliciting campaign donations, Peterson failed to disclose to potential contributors that she had already used prior contributions for her personal benefit.”

Describing how the scheme was ongoing for years, the IRS noted: “In furtherance of her scheme, Peterson diverted, and caused her friends and associates to divert, campaign funds from the KCPCF to Peterson’s personal use for the purpose of obtaining and using money and property from contributors to the KCPCF by means of materially false and fraudulent representations and promises for nearly seven (7) years.”