LoBiondo Staffer Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement
Rep. Frank LoBiondo’s former treasurer plead guilty Friday to embezzling more than $450,000 from the Republican’s campaign accounts, the Justice Department announced.
Andrew McCrosson, who served as the New Jerseyan’s campaign treasurer for nearly 15 years, pleaded guilty in a New Jersey federal courthouse to one count of embezzling funds and one count of wire fraud.
In a statement, the Justice Department said McCrosson admitted that from 1995 to 2010 he repeatedly wrote checks to himself from the campaign account, and in an attempt to conceal the theft, did not report the expenditures to the Federal Election Commission.
“According to the court document, McCrosson used the embezzled funds for personal purposes such as the repayment of a federal income tax lien, home mortgage payments, college tuition payments for his children and other living expenses,” the Justice Department statement reads.
McCrosson is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
LoBiondo’s campaign, which tipped off federal investigators to the problem in 2010, praised the Justice Department on Friday.
“Late last year, the campaign contacted the appropriate federal authorities about this matter, and since that time has actively cooperated with their investigation,” said William McGinley, an attorney with Patton Boggs who serves as the campaign’s counsel. “As reflected in the plea agreement, Mr. McCrosson’s actions were an abuse of the trust placed in him by the campaign. The campaign thanks the Department of Justice prosecutors and the FBI agents who have diligently pursued this matter.”