Condemning the role of money in elections, a Wake County judge on Wednesday banned Gov. Bev Perdue’s former fundraiser from the political world for two years and ordered him to pay a $25,000 fine.
Peter Reichard, 54, pleaded guilty to a felony count of obstruction of justice for his role in concealing an alleged scheme to funnel $32,000 from a wealthy Perdue donor through his Chapel Hill investment bank to a campaign aide.
Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens called Reichard’s actions “sheer foolishness.”
Ignoring campaign finance laws creates “an absolutely uncontrolled free-for-all in which honesty and truth and fairness is completely vanquished, where money talks and where money frequently tries to buy elections,” the judge said in issuing his ruling. “It seems like every election cycle we’ve got to revisit that.”
The governor’s re-election campaign moved quickly to distance itself from Reichard. In the campaign’s first comments about the indictment, Perdue attorney John Wallace said they were unaware of Reichard’s arrangement. The campaign acknowledged on Wednesday receiving an illegal benefit and forfeited $32,000.
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