Senate President John Alario says he has no knowledge of a reported FBI investigation into his campaign finances. The veteran lawmaker also says he has not received any subpoenas from federal investigators for documents and has not retained an attorney to represent him in the matter.
“Generally when those things are going on there would be a subpoena,” Alario tells Daily Report. “But I have not received anything and have no knowledge of that.”
Alario reportedly is under investigation by the FBI for questionable spending of campaign finances, according to New Orleans TV station FOX 8 News. The federal investigation reportedly was launched after a series of investigative reports last year by the station and NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune suggesting that Alario could have misreported as much as $20,000 of campaign spending on his campaign finance reports. According to the reports, Alario claimed tens of thousands of dollars of spending at Audubon Golf Club in New Orleans and on LSU tickets. But records showed that what he paid didn’t match up with what he claimed he paid on his campaign reports.
Alario tells Daily Report there may have been some accounting errors on his campaign finance reports but that there was no criminal activity or intent.
“We may have made a mistake but there was never any criminal intent, just some accounting that wasn’t done right,” he says. “With as many transactions as I have those things happen. I’m the first to admit I do make mistakes.”
Alario could not say whether he thinks reports of the FBI probe are erroneous. But he did say, “I really think when the news folks make a big splash out of something they have an obligation to look at things and follow up on them.”
The Senate president says he is disappointed his name was brought up in connection with an FBI investigation but is confident the matter will be resolved without any finding of wrongdoing.
“Nobody likes to have any bad publicity about themselves,” he says. “Anybody who would enjoy that would be sadistic. But I try to hold myself to a high standard and always try to work things out.”
