Police probe embezzlement allegations

According to the news release, the party filed a formal criminal complaint against Brandon Batham on Aug. 8 and initially planned to release a statement at that time. Instead, the release indicates, they deferred to Montpelier police, who requested party officials refrain from making a public statement.

Montpelier Police Chief Anthony Facos declined to comment on the party’s decision to release a statement at this time.

“Whatever they put out, they put out,” he said, while confirming the criminal complaint was received on Aug. 8 and a criminal investigation was opened.

“There’s not much more I can say,” he said on Monday.

Washington County State’s Attorney Rory Thibault said Monday he has been in contact with Montpelier police and indicated the investigation is “progressing.” However, he could not say whether or when a criminal referral would be made to his office.

“There’s nothing yet,” he said.

Party spokesperson Christopher Di Mezzo acknowledged the investigation is “ongoing,” while describing Sunday’s release as “… an exercise in honesty and transparency.”

“We wanted to make sure people were aware of what was going on (instead of) hearing it from third-party sources,” he said Monday.

Di Mezzo stopped short of saying police approved of the release, but noted they did not object to it.

“They (police) basically said it was our call,” he explained, noting party officials concluded it was in their best interest to issue a follow up statement to the release they put out on Aug. 2.

At that time, the party accused Batham of misappropriating $2,938 in party funds for personal use between January and June, based on an internal investigation that led to his July 17 resignation.

The second statement alleges substantially more money was involved and confirms a criminal complaint has been filed.

“… That earlier number did not reflect a then on-going effort to measure and document numerous instances of payroll fraud during the February-June 2019 period,” the press release states, suggesting those “instances” account for an additional $15,629 in misappropriated funds, pushing the total to $18,560.

Di Mezzo said the memo posted on the party’s website fairly characterizes what party Chairman Terje Anderson found when he finally obtained access to some of the party’s payroll accounts.

Di Mezzo said Anderson had previously sought without success to obtain access to those accounts since taking over as acting executive director in May following the April resignation of Josh Massey.

The memo alleges Batham, who was the administrator of the party’s automated payroll transactions, gave himself an “unauthorized raise” in mid-March that resulted in him being paid $2,783 more than he should have been between March 15 and June 30. It also contends that, starting in February, Batham “… began to issue himself unauthorized additional paychecks and ‘bonuses’ between official pay-periods” totaling roughly $12,845, in addition to the $2,931 in previously identified funds.

The memo maintains that starting in January, Batham used the party debit card to pay for personal items, sought and obtained reimbursement for personal items and filed false mileage reimbursement statements.

Batham did not respond to a phone message left Monday morning.

The memo notes that while Batham was “… responsible for accounting functions, preparing checks for signature, processing payroll and other automated payments,” he did not have signing power on the party accounts.

That was the sole purview of the party’s executive director.

“… The executive director is explicitly responsible for oversight and management of day-to-day spending and financial operations, including reviewing documentation for expenditures and signing checks,” the memo states. “Unfortunately, this did not happen effectively during the first four months of 2019, so the safeguards were not used to prevent these events.”

Attempts to reach Massey for comment on Monday were unsuccessful, though he reportedly declined comment to other media outlets.

The memo indicates a mileage reimbursement form submitted by Batham on June 30 sparked a review during which Anderson flagged several “fraudulent transactions” dating back to January. The results of that brief internal investigation were shared with the party’s vice chairwoman, Tess Taylor, and its treasurer, Billi Gosh, as well as legal counsel prior to the July 17 meeting during which Batham agreed to resign instead of being fired.

The party also plans to contract with an external firm that will be responsible for accounting, payroll, human resources and campaign finance reporting and is poised to welcome a new executive director — Scott McNeil — who has “… extensive expertise in the management of political party funds” and will start work next month.

According to the memo, the party will continue to cooperate completely with the investigation and potential future prosecution of the case and will explore every available avenue to recover the allegedly stolen funds.

Though Batham has since moved to Burlington, he briefly lived in Barre, where he won a contested race to represent Ward 2 on the City Council in 2017. Batham served a single two-year term before opting not to seek re-election in March.

Mayor Lucas Herring said Monday he was familiar with the allegations involving Batham, but could offer little insight.

“I haven’t spoken to Brandon since he left Barre,” Herring said of Batham.

david.delcore @timesargus.com