Icet Admits To Filing False Reports

For Release: Immediate

For More Information Contact: 314.292.9866

Saturday, June 12, 2010: WHEN confronted with compelling and damaging evidence, State Auditor candidate Allen Icet admitted to filing misstatements on multiple campaign finance reports.

On Friday, the Missouri Ethics Commission received a complaint alleging that the $25,000 Icet reported as a "contribution" on October 5, 2009 was in fact a loan. Icet reported on his required January 15 and April 15 disclosures that he had no outstanding loans. His campaign has since admitted the falsehoods contained in these reports.

The evidence provided with the complaint suggests that Icet sought to fraudulently inflate his cash on hand to deceive Missouri voters. The $25,000 loan represented fully a third of the money he raised that quarter.

Following the admission, Icet's campaign provided a paper-thin excuse to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch saying, “It's a clerical oversight. That’s what we’re calling it. A clerical oversight. It was a loan.” (http://interact.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2010/06/ethics-complaint-tilley-donation-latest-rhubarb-in-auditor-contest/).

"Either Icet is incompetent on one hand or, on the other, he knowingly violated the law," stated Joe Passanise, treasurer for the Schweich for Auditor campaign.

"If it takes Icet and his team 8 months to discover a "clerical oversight" in his own campaign finance reports, it exemplifies the fact that he is wholly unfit to audit billions of dollars of expenditures for the State of Missouri," stated Joe Passanise. "This is not an excusable error for a failure to ‘dot an "i"’ or ‘cross a "t"’ -- this relates to a large sum repeatedly, and evidently intentionally, mis-reported in multiple locations on multiple reports.""Icet has been in the legislature for almost a decade and has filed 30 reports during that time. Icet should know the difference between a contribution and a loan -- the requirement for which is very clearly stated on the forms. No one is going to believe this explanation," noted Passanise.

"But even if this incident was just a string of "clerical oversights” spanning 8 months, Icet has no business running to be state auditor – a position which requires careful scrutiny of financial matters," stated Passanise. "Yet he wants Missourians to believe he can meet the rigorous demands of the Auditor’s office. Icet calls it a clerical oversight, when in fact it is a likely serious violation of Missouri state law."