Joe Waldholtz's father and stepmother are listed as campaign donors to Rep. Enid Waldholtz, R-Utah. The trouble is, they say they never gave her any such money.
And a dozen or so other Pennsylvanians recorded as donors to the Enid '94 campaign also cannot be located or have addresses listed that do not exist.That - plus some interesting timing - has some wondering if bogus donations may have been a cover for Joe to funnel money possibly embezzled from his grandmother into his wife's campaign.
Of course, such money would be besides the $1.8 million that Enid has reported she gave to the campaign from personal funds.
Disclosure forms say Joe's father and stepmother, Harvey and Marilyn Waldholtz, each gave $2,000 to the Enid '94 committee during the first quarter of 1994, but they vehemently deny it.
The donations are listed on an April 15, 1994, disclosure form that was signed by assistant campaign treasurer Kaylin Loveland, who has said the reports were prepared by Joe - the campaign treasurer - and she has no knowledge of their accuracy or inaccuracy.
Among the many allegations Joe has been facing is that his family asserts he may have embezzled $700,000 from the estate of his grandmother, Rebecca Levenson, who had entrusted it to him to invest.
An attorney representing Harvey Waldholtz is not sure the supposed donations from his client and his wife to Enid '94 came from the missing $700,000 but wonders about their timing.
They and other questionable donations occurred less than a month before Joe's cousin, Steven Sles-inger, began court proceedings to become a guardian of Levenson's estate. Slesinger and Harvey Wald-holtz eventually obtained a court order requiring Joe to turn over any funds from Levenson and make a full accounting of his supposed investments for her.
Joe was supposed to appear in court in Pittsburgh last Monday to turn over the assets - but was absent. That was during the six days he was missing before he finally turned himself into the FBI in Washington on Friday.
"The problem is that no one knows where the money (in the unverifiable campaign reports) came from, and we don't know where our money went. So there's this big gap, and the only person who can fill it is Joe," said Bruce Gelman, Harvey Waldholtz's attorney.
Other anomalies also appear in the campaign reports.
As many as 12 of the listed $2,000 donations to Enid '94 in her April 15 quarterly report came from people who can't be found or are listed at nonexistent addresses, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Among them was Jennifer Acer, 1036 Elmwood Way, Harrisburg, Penn. She is noted on the April 15 report as having given $2,000 on Feb. 21, 1994. But neither police nor postal officials in Harrisburg could locate an Elmwood Way, either in the city or the adjacent municipality that matches the listed ZIP code, the newspaper reported.
The same type of discrepancies exist for three other Pennsylvania donors and two contributors from Florida, the report concluded.
When the Deseret News last year noticed heavy contributions from Pennsylvania, Enid explained they came because Joe was a native, had been active in Pennsylvania politics and sought donations there on her behalf.
None of the untraceable donors appeared in Enid's 1992 campaign report, the Post-Gazette said. Her office did not respond to Deseret News inquiries about the anomalies.
Harvey Waldholtz and Slesinger said they have been interviewed by the FBI about the money missing from Levenson's estate.
"We cooperated fully with them and, obviously, we have shared some things with them that we won't tell the press," Gelman said.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post provided more details about why Joe left as an aide in Pittsburgh to Republican National Committeewoman Elsie Hillman in 1992 - when he joined Enid's first campaign.
It quoted unnamed sources saying she fired him over a dispute concerning more than $100,000 of Hillman's own money that he allegedly spent on expensive hotel suites, first-class airline tickets, lavish meals and presents for his wife-to-be.
It said most of the expenses were run up while Joe was traveling to Republican National Committee meetings and other GOP events around the country. Since he oversaw some of Hillman's finances, he was able to conceal the spending from her. The Post said it was unclear how Hillman discovered the alleged financial impropriety and why she apparently did not take any action beyond firing Joe. Other newspapers, such as Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress, has said Hillman wanted to avoid bad publicity and sought a quick resolution.
In a prepared statement, Hillman said, "I believe that the Waldholtz matter is within the Waldholtz family, and the appearance of an ongoing formal investigation makes it inappropriate for any comment." A Hillman aide, John Denny, said that he was not authorized to issue any further statement.