Nearly four years after it began, an investigation into the financial reporting of Mark Robinson campaign in 2020 has been completed, leading to fines and a settlement.
In a closed session earlier this month, Robinson’s campaign committee agreed to pay the State Board of Elections $35,000 in a settlement agreement. In return, the Board will not pursue any action against Robinson in court or require his committee to pay for the costs of the multi-year investigation.
Last week, Robinson’s committee paid the settlement. On Tuesday, the Board released the settlement agreement and investigation findings to Bob Hall, campaign finance watchdog and former editor of Democracy NC, who submitted the initial complaint.
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His complaint, which alleged “apparent violations of North Carolina’s finance laws,” was lodged in Feb. 2021, shortly after Robinson was inaugurated as lieutenant governor.
Hall highlighted half a million dollars worth of alleged campaign finance violations that Robinson’s committee made during his campaign for lieutenant governor in 2019 and 2020.
The allegations against the Robinson campaign included illegal cash donations and withdrawals, contributions exceeding the legal limit, contributions and expenditures missing key reporting information like addresses and specified purposes and contributions from groups not registered to make contributions in North Carolina.
The audit of contributions and expenses of the Robinson campaign, finalized in September 2024, found various violations of campaign finance law.
They included:
- Four prohibited or improperly recorded business contributions;
- Several cash contributions and expenditures over $50;
- Over a hundred illegal anonymous contributions, totalling $9,915;
- Three contributions exceeding the then-$5,400 limit per election cycle;
- Five transactions from committees not registered in North Carolina, totalling $12,000;
- Campaign funds improperly used for personal medical expenses;
- Unreported contributions made by other registered political committees;
- Incomplete or missing purposes on 34% of reviewed expenses;
- Missing or incorrect occupation, address or date information on 34% of reviewed contributions;
- Contributions from joint accounts that did not specify which individual was making the contribution; and
- Various mathematical errors.
In all, the audit report detailed $34,493 in violations that were ultimately referred to the Legal Department and were subject to forfeiture to the State Board of Elections, which sends the money to the North Carolina Civil Penalties and Forfeiture Fund.
Those funds are appropriated by the legislature for public schools.
Hall said he had “mixed feelings” about the investigation’s end result.
“It’s good that they did penalize them and that it’s finally done, but it took so long, and I wish they would have charged more money,” Hall said.
Hall did not know how much the investigation may have cost. State Board spokesperson Pat Gannon said an accounting of the total cost is not yet available, but it mostly consisted of time spent by staff on the investigation.
“It sends a mixed message in a way — that you can run a whole additional campaign before you’re caught,” Hall said.
The State Board met in closed session in late November, a month after the finalized audit report, where executive director Karen Brinson Bell signed a settlement agreement. A few weeks later, the Robinson campaign made the agreed payment.
The audit did not state a reason why the investigation took multiple years, but listed dates the investigators communicated with Robinson’s committee. While there was a flurry of activity in 2021, the communication dropped off in 2022 and 2023 before picking up steam again in 2024.
Campaign staff worked on the audit during 2022 and 2023, along with other audits, investigations and responsibilities, Gannon said. He added that the dates the investigators made contact with the committee doesn’t document all work completed during that time.
Brinson Bell told the News and Observer that the State Board’s campaign finance unit has five analysts and a director to audit approximately 2,000 candidates, political action committees and political parties.
Due to a 2018 law passed with bipartisan support, State Board campaign finance investigations no longer include public investigative hearings. Instead, investigations are confidential until they are complete.
When the State Board looks into a campaign finance complaint, it must refer its findings to the State Ethics Commission, which conducts its own investigation before confidentially recommending whether the State Board should refer the case to the Wake County district attorney for criminal violations.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill over these provisions, but a Republican supermajority easily overrode his veto.
Cooper said the bill made it “harder to root out corruption in elections and campaign finance.”
“These new provisions operate to obscure the truth rather than shine a light on it,” he wrote in his veto message.
The State Board has been “handicapped” by the 2018 law, Hall said. Public hearings offer public accountability and put pressure on elections staff to develop a case, he said. Sometimes, new evidence that didn’t know comes out in public hearings.
Robinson campaign political consultant Matt Hurley said the settlement is a “non-issue” in a statement to Carolina Public Press.
“This is a settlement based on a years long dispute over some filing errors inadvertently made by a treasurer who has not been with the campaign in many many years,” Hurley said.
The audit report found several reporting errors that seemed to arise from reporting system issues and treasurer inexperience with the campaign finance reporting software.
Don Carrington, retired executive editor of the Carolina Journal, has been following the case, as well as issues with Balanced Nutrition, a nonprofit run by Yolanda Hill, Robinson’s wife. A recent Department of Health and Human Services audit of Balanced Nutrition found that it broke state law by over-charging the state $24,000.
The Robinson campaign finance audit found an instance where Balanced Nutrition gave a $2,500 contribution to Robinson’s campaign. Later, Robinson recorded a $2,400 cash withdrawal to refund the contribution, which was illegal. The missing $100 was referred to the Legal Department, but Carrington said the whole situation was suspect. DHHS rules would prevent Hill from making a political contribution through her nonprofit, he said.
The time period of the investigation is also “troubling,” Carrington added.
“It seems to me they went pretty light on him, and it certainly took a long time, and it would have been much better if people were aware of those findings before the election we just went through started,” he said.
Hall agreed. He said the public needed to know the information to include it in their calculations of who to vote for this election.
Robinson lost to Democratic Governor-Elect Josh Stein by 14 percentage points, following a series of scandals. But the investigation results may still be relevant, Hall said.
“He’s already had a few strikes against him, and it does echo the previous findings about his financial mismanagement and just overall failure to keep track of basic operations it seems,” he said.
“That can be important if he does want to get back into politics, or if he wants an appointed political position somewhere.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include additional information that became available.
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