When Kinde Durkee pleaded guilty in March to embezzling at least $7 million in campaign funds from Orange County Democrats such as Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), state Sen. Lou Correa (D-Anaheim) and Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana), as well as other California politicians like U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, she was looking at up to 14 years in prison. The Burbank-based campaign treasurer is looking at 8 years now, thanks to prosecutors.
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See also:
Kinde Durkee, Democratic Treasurer, Accused of Fraud
Kinde Durkee, Treasurer Accused of Ripping Off Democrats, Sued by Correa, Sanchez Sisters
Kinde Durkee, Near Plea Deal for Ripping Off Democratic Politicians, Makes a Love Match
Durkee was arrested in September 2011 and later charged in U.S. District Court in Sacramento with strip mining the
campaign funds she oversaw for more than 50 California Democrats. A 17-page complaint accused her of transferring $7 million from the combined accounts of her clients to her Durkee and
Associates
firm without their permission.
Under a plea deal reached in March, Durkee copped to using the
ill-gotten loot to pay personal expenses,
including a mortgage and credit card bills, as well as business expenses
and payroll. For instance, $23,000 from Feinstein's federal campaign
helped wipe out a $30,000 American Express bill with charges from
Disneyland, Amazon.com, Trader Joe's and the
Los Angeles Dodgers.
Some candidates, including Sanchez and Solorio, have filed civil lawsuits against Durkee, who federal prosecutors dubbed “the Bernie Madoff of campaign treasurers” for her 12-year rip-off reign.
Those same prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's office are
recommending a little more than eight years behind bars for Durkee. If the judge agrees,
she would have to serve six years and 10 months in the joint before she is
eligible for parole.
There is also talk of restitution, but no one expects her to come up with the full $7 million.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.