TheLiberalOC.com investigation has uncovered solid and irrefutable evidence that Hoa Van Tran failed to report $8,447.12 in expenditures paid by check out of his campaign bank account on or before the initial campaign reporting period ending March 17, 2008. Those expenses were his Candidate Filing Fee, $1,430.42; Candidate Statement Fee, $5,965; salary payment to one campaign staffer, $500; reimbursement to a campaign staffer for purchase of office supplies, $51.70. In addition, our investigation found that an independent contractor was paid $500 to set up office computer network on the weekend of March 16, 2008. We were unable to get a copy of the check to determine if it was issued from the campaign or Hoa Van Tran personally because the vendor cashed it at a check cashing center and did not keep a copy.

The most striking evidence that the campaign may have failed to accurately report expenditures is the range of check numbers between the $500 payment of salary on March 8th; and reimbursement for office equipment ($51.70) on the March 15th. There are at least sixteen checks from the campaign checking account with First Vietnamese American Bank, assuming they started with #1001, that have been used including eleven check numbers separating the payments on the 8th and 15th of March. There are three expenses in the campaign report exceeding $100 that one could presume were paid by campaign check. There are additional non-itemized expenditures of $17.81 which is likely a single payment. That leaves at least ten checks unaccounted for during the filing period. What were these checks used for and why are the expenditures not reported?