Michael O’Donnell faces campaign finance fines from state watchdog agency

Michael O’Donnell, who recently resigned from the Sedgwick County Commission, is facing thousands of dollars in civil fines for state campaign violations in 2015 and 2016, according to a complaint filed by the Kansas ethics commission.

O’Donnell faces nine counts of campaign finance violations for funneling thousands of dollars from his campaign account to his personal checking account and to four friends, whom he fraudulently reported as campaign workers, the complaint says.

The maximum he could be fined is $90,000.

O’Donnell resigned in November rather than face ouster proceedings by the Sedgwick County District Attorney for his role in a false attack ad against Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple and a subsequent cover-up during the 2019 mayoral race. He lost re-election to Sarah Lopez and is being sued for defamation by Whipple in state court.

The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission will hold a hearing on O’Donnell’s case Wednesday in Topeka. It will be O’Donnell’s second run-in with the state ethics watchdog agency, which fined him $500 when he was a Wichita City Council member in 2012 for using his government computer to send out a fundraising email for a political ally during a council meeting.

Because this would be his second offense of Kansas campaign finance law, each violation carries a maximum fine of $10,000, Governmental Ethics Commission Director Mark Skoglund confirmed in an email.

The allegations closely parallel federal money laundering and wire fraud charges filed in federal court by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2018.

The reason for delay on the complaint, filed by Skoglund nearly four years after the most recent violation, is unclear.

“While I cannot comment on details of pending matters, the delay was not caused by Respondent or the agency,” Skoglund said.

O’Donnell reportedly asked the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission to investigate him before his federal trial in 2019. After the federal trial ended with O’Donnell acquitted of nearly all charges, the agency requested transcripts of testimony by four of O’Donnell’s friends who testified against him.

Two of those friends, Colby Rankin and Jonathan Dennill, testified in federal court that they were given a pair of $1,000 checks by O’Donnell after an Aspen ski trip. Both testified they did not work on O’Donnell’s campaign to earn the money.

One of those friends cashed and returned the money to O’Donnell when O’Donnell asked; the other wrote O’Donnell a personal check back in the same amount when O’Donnell asked for it. Federal investigators said the money went from O’Donnell’s campaign account to his friends and then into his personal account.

Two others, David Jorgensen and Jack Masterson, testified that they did nothing to earn a series of payments from O’Donnell in 2015 and 2016 totaling $8,500.

The ethics commission complaint says those payments were violations of the state’s campaign finance laws that require campaign expenses to be used for “legitimate campaign purposes” or other eligible expenses.

Central to O’Donnell’s defense in the federal trial was the argument that Kansas’ campaign finance laws allow payments to friends even if they haven’t done any work on the campaign.

“I didn’t even break Kansas law, let alone federal,” O’Donnell told the Associated Press in 2019. “That was the whole problem and that is why we self-referred because we wanted it cleared up before (trial), and once you turn in a referral you can’t call and say, ‘Never mind, I take it back.’”

In March of 2019, jurors acquitted O’Donnell on 21 counts of wire fraud. They deadlocked on two counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering and federal prosecutors asked the court to drop the charges. O’Donnell served in the Kansas Senate from 2012 to January 2017 when his term on the Sedgwick County Commission began.

The nine counts against O’Donnell are:

▪ Prohibited use of political contributions (Four counts) — Jan. 2, 2016, O’Donnell paid $1,000 each to Colby Rankin and Jonathan Dennill out of his campaign account; Between Feb. 2, 2015, and Dec. 27, 2016, O’Donnell paid $6,400 to David Jorgensen out of his campaign account. Between Dec. 15, 2015, and May 5, 2016, O’Donnell paid $2,100 to Jack Masterson out of his campaign account.

▪ Fraudulent reporting (Four counts) — The ethics commission alleges O’Donnell “intentionally ma(d)e a false material statement in a report made under the campaign finance act” by listing Rankin’s payment as compensation for “help/campaign services,” Dennill’s as “photography services,” Jorgensen’s as “campaign services and accounting services” and Masterson’s as “campaign services.”

▪ Comingling (One count) — O’Donnell mixed campaign contributions with personal funds by moving $2,000 from his campaign account to his personal checking account.

O’Donnell could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Dion Lefler of The Wichita Eagle contributed.

This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 3:44 PM.