Former U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo violated campaign finance law, FEC says. He'll have to pay

Yahoo

14-02-2025

Former U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo will pay $30,000 for converting campaign funds to personal use under an agreement that he reached with the Federal Election Commission.
Palazzo, who could not be reached to comment, will pay the FEC a civil penalty of $13,500 and reimburse his re-election campaign $16,500 to cover outstanding debt.
The certified public accountant served as Mississippi's 4th Congressional District representative from 2011 until January 2023, losing his final re-election bid to U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell in the Republican primary.
In 2019, the FEC found, Palazzo charged his campaign $3,000 a month to rent, as a campaign office, the River House in D'Iberville from a company that he owned, Greene Acres LLC.
His campaign paid a total of $24,000 in rent on the property before it was sold in August 2019, plus an additional $7,848.99 for utilities, maintenance, and repairs. The FEC concluded that 'almost no campaign activity' was conducted at River House in 2019.
The campaign paid an additional $65,893.51, from March 2018 until June 2021, for a car lease and other vehicle-related expenses, the FEC report says. Palazzo was also using the car for personal travel, he has acknowledged. Palazzo has already reimbursed the campaign $23,202.46 for personal use of the vehicle.
The FEC noted that Palazzo did not keep mileage logs to track personal use of the vehicle and the amount paid was 'a good faith effort to properly apportion the shared use of the campaign vehicle.'
The FEC investigated the expenses after receiving a complaint in January 2020 from Carl Boyanton, also a candidate in the 2022 Republican primary.
In the complaint, Boyanton wrote, in part: ' . . . Congressman Palazzo has no campaign office so he shouldn't have any bills paid for one. I went to his congressional offices in Mississippi and they all said the same thing that Palazzo has no campaign office, that he just has people out in the district representing him.
'So how would he have electric, cable, house cleaning, lawn care and repairs and maintenance?'
Although he agreed to the FEC decision, Palazzo has admitted no wrongdoing. He did not return a telephone call from the Sun Herald.
His attorney, former 3rd District Rep. Gregg Harper, said: 'Steven Palazzo absolutely never converted any campaign funds to personal use. It would have cost $125,000 to $150,000 to defend against the FEC. The cost of litigation was just too exorbitant.'
In March 2021, the Office of Congressional Ethics found 'substantial' evidence to suggest that Palazzo converted campaign finance funds for personal use. The FEC also considered material submitted from that investigation.
Staff Writer Margaret Baker contributed to this report.