Dear members:

Prior to the course of events that led to the resignation of former SEANC Executive Director Dana Cope, the EMPAC board under my leadership, requested a third party audit of three years of operations dating back to 2012. We selected Williams Overman Pierce, a reputable Raleigh-Based firm steeped in North Carolina political action committee accounting practices and State Board of Elections reporting.

As the situation with Mr. Cope developed, what began as a routine audit of a state PAC, became all the more important given the accusations of Mr. Cope's mishandling of funds.

The work of the Williams audit team is now complete and I am pleased to report that the findings of the audit - all of which have been made available to SBI investigators and SEANC members - do not in any way suggest that EMPAC funds were mishandled by Mr. Cope or anyone else for that matter.

Click here to access the full audit and accompanying letter from the auditor.

Although the audit showed that no funds had been misappropriated, it did find some small reporting discrepancies to the State Board of Elections that we are correcting with amended reports. It also revealed the need for EMPAC to file current returns with the Internal Revenue Service, a requirement for tax exempt entities and one that we are addressing now.

Sincerely,

Tony Smith
Statewide EMPAC Chairman