Man Steals Money from Wilson Co. Dem Party

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 10:12 PM
Man drains Dem. Party account
While restitution made, official seeks settlement

Couertesy > The Wilson Times / By Janet Conner-Knox | Times Staff Writer


The Wilson County Democratic Party says a local man, claiming to be doing work for Democratic candidates, emptied their bank account, leaving them overdrawn at the bank to the tune of $500, which included all fees assessed.

Asa Gregory, chairman of the local party, said BB&T began negotiations with them and had even come to an agreement but has since declined to reimburse them for the stolen money.

Gregory said it was by accident that their treasurer, Barbara Dantonio, found out the political party’s bank account was empty.

“A man broke into our treasurer’s house and he stole a checkbook and he went to the Stantonsburg branch of BB&T bank and he cashed several checks — 11 in total, some twice a day,” Gregory said. “Of course we didn’t know about it. We didn’t have online banking or checking and we didn’t have a reason to check it.”

Gregory said the accused man, Daniel Ray Wilson, 53, had once lived in the house with Dantonio but was put out of the house and no longer had access.

“He went in there (BB&T) and said he was doing work for the Democratic Party to get Calvin Woodard elected again,” Gregory said. “Obviously Sheriff Woodard is not up to be re-elected until 2014.”

Stantonsburg Police Chief John Hunt said there were warrants served on Wilson in the earlier part of the year for the incident.

Gregory said Wilson has agreed to pay restitution for what has stolen, and has paid back around $400 of the approximate $1,400 that was stolen out of the bank account.

Wilson, who has a long conviction history, had been charged with forgery and uttering, larceny and misdemeanor breaking and entering.

Dantonio is no longer the treasurer for the Wilson County Democrat Party.

Gregory said he isn’t satisfied with the way BB&T handled the party as a customer.

“We discovered what happened and we took measures to talk to people to get it rectified,” Gregory said. “I talked with people for several months to get this rectified because I felt like it was BB&T’s job and it is BB&T’s job to protect the assets of its clients.”

He said the checking account requires two signatures and there was only one signature on the checks. Gregory said the one signature they got was forged and the teller should have noticed that.

He said the signature looked different on each of the checks cashed.



BB&T RESPONSE

“BB&T cannot comment on the particulars of this matter due to the confidentiality of the settlement,” said David R. White, vice president of corporate communications. “BB&T addressed this issue with an attorney representing the Wilson County Democratic Party.”

But White did say even though the Democratic Party said it requires two signatures for each check, two signatures are not part of BB&T’s policy.

“Generally speaking, however, a client’s business procedure that two individuals must act jointly to perform banking transactions, such as a two-signers requirement for checks, are for the client’s internal purposes only and are not binding on the bank,” White said. “Under the terms of the BB&T banking service agreements applicable to deposit accounts, the bank has no duty or obligation to monitor or comply with any such two-signer requirement.”

Gregory contends bank personnel should have checked the signatures.

“The main teller at Stantonsburg branch never checked the signature card on file, which would have taken her all of five seconds, I would say.”

Gregory said BB&T offered a settlement agreement.

“It was half the amount that was taken from the party, and then we would be able to collect from the individual the restitution and then anything over that would go to BB&T — which I agreed to, that was fine, that makes sense,” Gregory said.

Gregory said he worked with attorneys from the North Carolina Democratic Party on the settlement agreement with the bank.

“I got the paperwork he told me I needed to sign – I signed it, I shipped it, he looked it over and even found a mistake on one of my pages,” Gregory said. “And so I printed that one page out to fix it. Sent it back to him. Went to them — they didn’t sign it.”

Gregory said Dantonio did protect the checkbook.

“I think she protected it,” Gregory said. “She kept it in her house, locked up in her house. And this guy didn’t have access to her house. He did live there for a time, but he had left the house.”

Gregory said based on rules he is aware of, they are not at fault and definitely not negligent. Gregory said a friend may know where another person keeps their checkbook in a house, but if they break into the person’s house and steal it, it’s not negligence on the part of the victim. It is a criminal act by the person who broke in, Gregory said.

A spokesman from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said they can’t speak to this particular case, but did say that banks usually buy insurance that protects them from bank robberies or customers whose money was stolen.

“If a customer doesn’t like the outcome of their bank’s decision about their account, they can take their complaint to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC),” said LaJuan Williams-Young, spokesperson for the FDIC.

Williams-Young said their OCC’s function is to act as mediator.

The Democratic Party has opened an account with Cornerstone Bank.



HANDLING THE INCIDENT

Gregory said he never kept this incident away from the public’s eye nor did he try to hide what happened to the Democrat’s banking account.

“The officers of the party are handling the situation, and that’s our business,” Gregory said. “For those who are members of the county executive committee, we were trying to resolve this. We didn’t necessarily expect this to be in the paper before we had a meeting. But we will have a meeting to address this with them.”

Gregory said the party is paying its bills.

Democrats are now planning their annual SLOB (Silver Lake Oyster Bar) fund raiser. The group usually holds this event as a way to be able to support campaigning for Democratic candidates.

The SLOB was not held last year,

This time Dewey Sheffield and Mark Bibbs, who is running for N.C. House District 8 seat, are co-chairs for the event.

Wilson, the man accused for cashing those checks, has an extensive arrest record dating back from 1986 up to 2012. Convictions include forgery, multiple assault on a female charges, unauthorized use motor conveyance, larceny, DWI levels 1, 2 and 3, obtaining property-worthless checks, cheat-property/services, communicating