Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 16, 1992 TAG: 9203160071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
McHugh, D-N.Y., only agreed to lead the inquiry after the bank told him he had no bad checks. It turned out the bank was wrong: McHugh now believes he had one.
As many lawmakers learn things they never knew about the place where they deposited their paychecks, they increasingly blame the sloppily run bank for their burgeoning rubber-check scandal.
Rep. Ed Towns, D-N.Y., who was identified by congressional sources as having written 408 rubber checks, said the bank "really didn't have any rules. . . . It was just common knowledge that people could overdraft."
Ethics committee members who investigated the bad checks say it will come as no surprise to them if some members work their way off the panel's worst-abuser list because the bank's bookkeeping was so bad.
The committee plans to designate publicly 19 current and five former House members as abusers after giving them a few days to review their records. Congressional sources on Saturday gave The Associated Press the names of 21 Democrats and one Republican on the House ethics committee list.
The sources identified the top bad-check writer as former Rep. Tommy Robinson of Arkansas, a Democrat turned Republican. The sources said Robinson wrote 996 bad checks while Rep. Bob Mrazek, D-N.Y., had 972; and Rep. Robert Davis, R-Mich., wrote 878.
Robinson and Mrazek have said they believe the ethics committee information is wrong. Many others on the list expressed bafflement at their inclusion, saying they were never informed of any major problems.
"What really bothers me is that if I'm guilty, I don't mind 'fessing up to it," said Robinson. He said he had received no notification of any problems during his six years in the House and added, "I just suspicion from the bottom of my heart that money from one congressman's account was used to pay someone else's hot check."
The names of the other two Republicans on the list could not immediately be learned.
The operations of the now-defunct bank hadn't changed much in the past century. Record-keeping was handwritten in a computer age.
Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., described a member who made a deposit while the regular teller who handled the account was on vacation.
Only at this bank should the customer have asked when the teller was coming back.
While the deposit went unrecorded for 10 days, until the regular teller returned, the member wrote checks that now appear as overdrafts.
by CNB