SANTA ANA, Calif. – A former volunteer treasurer for Congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s re-election committee was convicted today of embezzling over $300,000 from campaign funds and business where he worked.
Jack Wenpo Wu, 46, Newport Beach, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of grand theft by embezzlement, 21 felony counts of forgery, with sentencing enhancement allegations for theft exceeding $100,000, aggravated white collar crime over $100,000, and property loss over $200,000.
He faces a maximum sentence of four years and four months in state prison in a court offer at his sentencing on March 13, 2017.
In 2004, Wu worked as a volunteer, non-paid treasurer for the Committee to Re-elect Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (Committee). Wu paid taxes owed by the Committee, filed Federal Election Committee reports, was the custodian of records, and ran the Committee’s bank accounts.
In 2008, Wu was employed by Russell Fischer Inc. (RFI) as a controller with an annual salary of $70,000. He was responsible for all accounts receivable, all accounts payable, reconciling all of RFI’s bank accounts, and other duties related to payroll.
On March 30, 2012, Wu’s pay at RFI was reduced to $2,000 every two weeks as an independent 1099 contractor. Wu worked two days out of the week at RFI while managing his own accounting company, Wubell Services.
Between June 2012 and September 2013, Wu continued to receive payroll checks from RFI for his original salary and collected $2,000 every pay period as an independent contractor. He took over $71,000 in unauthorized payroll during this time period.
Between July 2013 and August 2013, Wu illegally issued additional RFI independent contractor checks to Wubell Services, in addition to receiving his authorized independent contractor rate of $2,000 per pay period. He received $12,000 in unauthorized independent contractor payments in 2013.
Wu took over $83,000 in unauthorized payments from RFI. In September 2013, RFI fired Wu after discovering the theft. Wu agreed to and made restitution payments to RFI from late 2013 and 2014.
In May 2015, the Committee’s campaign manager attempted to pay a bill with the Committee’s debit card but it was refused. The campaign manager contacted Bank of America to discover that $170,000 was missing from the account. Wu took unauthorized funds from the Committee account totaling over $238,000 and used some of the money to repay restitution he owed RFI.
