Ex-Providence City Council Hopeful Violates Campaign Finance Laws: AG

PROVIDENCE, RI — A former candidate for Providence City Council was arraigned Thursday after violating state campaign finance laws, according to Attorney General Peter Nerona.

Gerard Catala, 44, was arraigned by a justice of the peace at the Rhode Island State Police barracks on two charges of failing to file campaign finance reports as required by state law. Catala will be re-arraigned in Sixth Division District Court on Tuesday.

According to charging documents, the charges stemmed from Catala "knowingly and willfully failing to file two required finance reports" from his Ward 9 city council campaign in the 2022 election.

"As I have stated previously, this office is committed to stepping in at the request of the Board of Elections when candidates for public office blithely and repeatedly ignore the Rhode Island’s campaign finance laws," Neronha said. "Those laws exist for many reasons, among them to provide transparency into how candidates are financing their campaigns and whether they are doing so legally. Failure to file such reports, after repeated directives from the Board of Elections to file them, can lead only to one place: criminal prosecution. I am grateful to the Board of Elections for their strong partnership with this Office, and to the State Police for their usual excellent investigative work in this case."

In 2022, the Board of Elections referred this matter to the Office of the Attorney General and Rhode Island State Police for investigation. According to court documents, the referral from the Board of Election followed repeated failures by Catala to timely file required campaign finance reports, despite having received numerous communications from the board regarding filing requirements.