Main Line Woman Pleads Guilty To 2012 Election Scheme: U.S. Attorney

A Main Line woman accused of scheming to illegally cover a political candidate's camping debt from a 2012 primary election race has pleaded guilty to providing false information to the Federal Election Committee, according to acting U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen's office.

Carolyn Cavaness, 34, of Ardmore, entered a guilty plea to causing false statements to the FEC in connection with a 2012 congressional primary election, Lappen's office said.

Cavaness is accused of being part of a falsification scheme involving payments to a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, identified by Lappen's office as Candidate B, Lappen's office said.

According to Cavaness' plea agreement, those payments came from Candidate B’s political opponent, as Candidate A, for the purpose of removing Candidate B from the 2012 Democratic race for Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District, Lappen's office said. Cavaness was a member of Candidate B’s campaign staff.

Cavaness admitted to authorities that around February 2012, Candidate B withdrew from the primary election pursuant to an agreement with his opponent, Candidate A, who promised to pay Candidate B $90,000 from his campaign funds to be used to repay Candidate B’s campaign debts.

Cavaness admitted that she was aware that under the applicable law a contribution from one authorized campaign to another could not exceed $2,000 for the primary election, and that the FEC required campaigns to file periodic reports itemizing the campaign’s contributions and expenditures during the reporting period, Lappen's office said.

However, in order to conceal the fact that Candidate A’s campaign committee paid Candidate B’s campaign debts, Candidate B instructed Cavaness to create a company whose sole purpose would be to receive the funds from Candidate A’s political campaign and repay Candidate B’s campaign debts, according to Lappen's office

Cavaness admitted to doing so, Lappen's office said.

Those payments were then routed through two political consultants, who created false invoices to generate a paper trail intended to justify the payments from Candidate A’s campaign committee, Lappen's office said.

Cavaness used the money from Candidate A’s campaign committee to repay Candidate B’s campaign debts and for personal expenses, but failed to disclose this information to the FEC, according to Lappen's office

Cavaness knowingly and intentionally caused Candidate B’s campaign committee to file false reports with the FEC which did not disclose or reference the funds received from Candidate A’s campaign committee, did not mention the companies of the political consultants through whom the payments were routed, and falsely listed the same debts owed by Candidate B’s campaign that had been disclosed on earlier reports, despite the fact that those debts had been repaid using funds paid to Candidate B by Candidate A’s campaign committee, Lappen's office said.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Gibson and Trial Attorney Jonathan Kravis of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.

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