The district attorney’s office says a former treasurer for U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s re-election campaign was arrested at his home today, Tuesday, Feb. 2, and accused of embezzling over $300,000 from the campaign and a business where he previously worked.
Jack Wenpo Wu, 45, of Newport Beach, is to be arraigned on Wednesday, Feb. 3, and charged with three felony counts of grand theft by embezzlement and 21 felony counts of forgery, says a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.
Wu, who owns Costa Mesa accounting firm Wubell, was fired by Rohrabacher’s campaign in May 2015 after the campaign manager discovered $170,000 missing from accounts. The Republican congressman from Costa Mesa represents a district that spans from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach.
Deputy District Attorney Marc Labreche accuses Wu, who worked as an unpaid treasurer for the campaign in 2014, of siphoning over $238,000 from the account and using some of the money to repay restitution to his former employer, who the prosecutor says was also ripped off.
Wu worked as a $70,000-a-year controller for Russell Fischer Inc., a car wash chain, until 2012, when his pay was cut and he became an independent contractor, Labreche said. The prosecutor said for 15 months Wu continued to receive payroll checks for his original salary while also collecting unauthorized independent contractors pay, which cumulatively amounted to $83,000, until the theft was discovered and he was fired in September 2013.
Wu is accused of making restitution payments to RFI from late 2013 and 2014 from the campaign account, “based on our forensic accounting,” said Labreche, which involved analysis of bank records from the business and campaign. “That’s why it took so long,” the prosecutor said.
Wu, who stepped down from a Newport Beach committee appointment last June, has written political columns for various local newspapers, including the Newport Beach Independent.
If convicted, Wu faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and four months in state prison in part due to sentencing enhancement allegations for theft exceeding $100,000. He is being held on $322,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday, Feb. 3 in the Central Jail in Santa Ana.
“Wu, who stepped down from a Newport Beach committee appointment last June, has written political columns for various local newspapers, including the Newport Beach Independent.”
And guess who the “Smart Guy” was that appointed Wu to the Newport Beach Finance Committee? Why none other then “Team Newport’s” SCOTT PEOTTER! Either he’s a terrible judge of character or knew him very, very well? Either way, not too bright.
As for Rohrbacher and Wu’s relationship…the old saying goes “Lay down with dog’s, you get up with fleas”
So take your pick which is the dog.