May 14, 2009

Attorney General Corbett announces criminal charges against Northampton County political consultant

HARRISBURG - A Northampton County political consultant has been charged today by agents of the Attorney General's Office for filing fraudulent campaign expense reports and submitting deceptive invoices to his clients.

Attorney General Tom Corbett identified the defendant as Thomas E. Severson, 63, 901 East Walnut Ave., Pen Argyl, Northampton County.  Severson is the owner of Precision Marketing Inc., 2906 William Penn Highway, Easton, Northampton County.

Corbett said his office initiated the investigation based on a conflict of interest referral from Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli who had hired Severson as his political consultant.

John Doe Campaign Finance Report
The Attorney General's investigation began with a probe into anonymous negative campaign mailings that were directed against Brian Monahan, a candidate for Northampton County Magisterial District Judge in the 2007 Primary Election.

An independent expenditure report was filed in June of 2007 in Northampton County by a "John Doe."  The expenditure report specified that John Doe paid $861 on May 2, 2007, to Severson's political consulting company, Precision Marketing Inc. for campaign mailings.

Attorney General agents reviewed Severson's business and financial records and found that between May 4 and May 10, 2007, Severson paid for postage and mailed negative campaign advertisements against Monahan. 

The Monahan mailings did not contain an attribution clause, which is required by law and indicates who, or what entity, paid for the advertisement.

The charges state that the notary public who notarized the John Doe campaign expense report told agents that Severson signed the document in her presence as John Doe. 

Deceptive Campaign Companies
The investigation also found that Severson sent deceptive invoices to some of his Democratic clients.  Severson allegedly employed this tactic because he claimed that these clients did not want the name of his company Precision Marketing Inc. to appear on their campaign expense reports. 

The charges state that Severson used three different business names in the deceptive invoices: Political Strategies Inc., Santa Monica, Calif.; Printex, a Lehigh Valley printing company and MJR Services Inc., with an address in Phillipsburg, NJ.
 
The investigation found that Political Strategies Inc. is essentially a front company for Precision Marketing Inc.  Political Strategies Inc. has no employees, no actual building and no business is conducted in California. Checks mailed to Political Strategies Inc. in California were picked up by a Severson relative living there and mailed to Severson.

The charges state that MJR Services Inc. is a small mail house company that rents space from Severson's company.

Deceptive Campaign Invoices
The charges state that the campaign of Anthony Rybak, who ran for state representative for the 133rd district in 2006, hired Severson as a political consultant.  Rybak's campaign allegedly was directed by Severson to make all checks out to Printex. 

Rybak's campaign filed two campaign expense reports in 2006 indicating that the campaign work, which included mailings, printed materials and phone calls for the campaign was done by Printex, when in fact it was done by Severson.

The Northampton County Democratic Committee received invoices from Political Strategies Inc. in 2007 for phones, printing and campaign services and sent two separate payments.   The Democratic Committee later filed a 2007 campaign expense report that listed Political Strategies Inc.

The charges state that in 2003 Severson sent invoices to the campaign of Robert Donchez, who was a candidate for city council in the city of Bethlehem, from MJR Services Inc. 

The Donchez campaign received four invoices from MJR Services Inc. and one invoice from Political Strategies Inc.  In 2003, Donchez' campaign filed three separate campaign expense reports listing services from Severson as either from MJR Services Inc. or Political Strategies Inc.

The charges also state that in 2003 the Committee to Elect Judge Panella to Superior Court, received invoices from Severson for MJR Services Inc. and Political Strategies Inc.  Judge Panella's campaign filed five campaign expense reports that listed the deceptive invoices from Severson.

There is no information from the campaigns or candidates to indicate that they specifically directed Severson to send them deceptive addresses.

Corbett explained that the underlying principle of campaign expense reports is openness and transparency and by sending his clients deceptive invoices, Severson's actions caused his involvement with their campaigns to be hidden from the public. 

Severson surrendered before Harrisburg Magisterial District Judge Marsha C. Stewart and was preliminarily arraigned and released on $100,000 recognizance bail.  A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday, May 25.

Severson will be prosecuted in Dauphin County by Senior Deputy Attorney General E. Marc Costanzo of the Attorney General's Public Corruption Unit.

Severson is charged with12 third-degree felony counts of tampering with public records or information; 12 second-degree misdemeanor counts of false swearing, 12 third-degree misdemeanor counts of false swearing, 12 second-degree misdemeanor counts of unsworn falsification to authorities and five third-degree felony counts of criminal conspiracy.  He is also charged with one misdemeanor count of violation of the Election Code related to the Monahan negative campaign mailings and one misdemeanor count of violation of the Election Code related to reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons for the John Doe report.

 (A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.)

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