Auditor is Toast!

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents seized campaign records from Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan's home in Tecumseh and seized at least one piece of jewelry from his sister-in-law's home at the same time, The Oklahoman's Tony Thornton reports today. The jewelry allegedly was purchased by Steve Phipps of Kiowa, abstract company owner under investigation by the FBI in a wide-ranging scandal in southeastern Oklahoma.

Phipps has been in business with disgraced former Senator Gene Stipe;** both are targets of the investigation, which thus far has implicated other former state officials, employees of the Phipps-Stipe abstract companies, and employees of Stipe. McMahan's office licenses and regulates the abstract industry, members of which poured tens of thousands of dollars into his 2002 and 2006 campaigns. (For details of TMRO's extensive reports on the donations last year, click on McMahan's name below.)

Thornton reports the seizures occurred last Thursday, the same day two agents spent 90 minutes interviewing McMahan in his Capitol office. It was McMahan's third visit by FBI agents. A retired federal agent told TMRO today that agents would not have seized jewelry, or anything else, from a relative's home unless agents possessed "positive proof" that the items were "the product of an illegal act."

The seizure almost certainly indicates that McMahan is a target of the investigation, he said. He added that the seizure of finance records in a state campaign by federal agents could indicate there is suspicion that federal funds somehow wound up in the campaign, or that they are searching for evidence of a criminal conspiracy.
-McCarville

Read front page Tuesday Oklahoman and visit: >

'Rumor' has it that Dems are searching for someone that Gov.Henry can appoint to office to replace McMahan! Stay tuned!

** Hearing scheduled on revocation of Stipes probation!