Fulton County commissioner under investigation, accused of misusing $20k in campaign funds

A Fulton County commissioner is under investigation accused of misusing campaign funds.

It started with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. Now, the attorney general is investigating.

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Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes was outside of the Fulton County government building on Thursday during Channel 2 Action News at 5 p.m. where she spoke with the commissioner.

Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Ramen said she isn’t surprised that she is under investigation for something she was accused of doing five years ago.

She can’t talk much about the open investigation but she did say the accusations are not true.

“What I can say is, this is dirty politics at its worst,” said Abdur-Ramen.

She said she had been through this before when she was sued right after she was elected to the Fulton County Commission four years ago.

She won that case.

“The same hands that were behind that are the hands behind this,” said Abdur-Ramen

This current investigation started when someone told the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission that Abdur-Ramen was misusing campaign funds. Then, in February 2023, someone from that commission sent a letter to the attorney general’s office asking for further investigation.

Channel 2 Action News confirmed that the AG’s office is now looking into this case.

There are four pages of incidents where Abdur-Ramen is accused of misspending money. One line says, “she failed to disclose expenditure to Anthony in the amount of $350.:”

In total, she is accused of misspending about $20,000.

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There are several allegations that she took cash out of an ATM from that same campaign account. Most of the accusations are from 2019.

“I think my constituents are educated enough to see this for what it is but I have full respect for our Attorney General and at the end of the day I’ll comply, it’ll be over with and there will be nothing to see here,’ said Abdur-Ramen.

Fernandes spoke with Commissioner Arrington about this and said, “Unfortunate to hear that the ethics board referred her case to the Attorney General for Prosecution. The use of campaign funds to pay a title max loan, a chiropractor, a personal mortgage and a personal power bill is unacceptable. If we can’t trust her to use her campaign funds ethically how can voters trust her to use their tax dollars ethically? Over 60 additional violations of misuse of campaign funds shows a pattern of mismanagement and a lack of fiscal responsibility that should be disqualifying.”

Abdur-Ramen said she will be vindicated and that this is all a strategy to make her lose her commission seat in the upcoming election.

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