Christian Coalition Contractor Questioned Board Suspended Financial Officer Who Pointed Out Discrepancies

The contractor who handles the Christian Coalition’s immense direct-mail operation acknowledged that federal prosecutors have questioned him about charges that he overbilled the organization by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“They’ve asked questions and things,” said Benjamin Hart, whose Springfield, Va., company, Hart Conover, is the coalition’s primary mail contractor. “There is an inquiry going on.”

Asked whether documents have been subpoenaed, he said, “I’ve been advised I shouldn’t comment on that.”

Hart acknowledged that since questions were raised about his billing practices by Judy Liebert, the Christian Coalition’s chief financial officer, he also has been audited by a private firm hired by the coalition. The audit should be completed soon, he said.

“We’re 100 percent confident they will find everything to be in order, and everything’s going to be fine,” Hart said in a telephone interview. “We expect to continue to do work for them in the future.”

Hart is a close friend and frequent golf partner of coalition executive director Ralph Reed. Property tax records in Fairfax County, Va., show that Hart last year built an $855,000 home in the county’s upscale McLean area.

Earlier this year Liebert discovered billings she believed were excessive, based on the cost of previous work done by Hart’s company, said her attorney, Moody Stallings. She pointed out the apparent discrepancies to her superiors, including Reed, Stallings said.

The coalition’s most recent tax disclosure form shows it spent more than $11.3 million in 1994 on printing, postage and list rental.

When Reed showed no indication of concern, she took her findings to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Norfolk, Stallings said.

Liebert was called before a meeting of the coalition’s board of directors on May 28, according to several people present at the meeting, and asked to explain her actions. It was immediately afterward that she was suspended and told to turn in her identification card and keys, and not to return to the Chesapeake, Va., office.

Liebert has continued to collect her $85,000-a-year salary since then.

David Ventker, an attorney representing the Christian Coalition who attended the May 28 meeting, said there was “no suspicion of malfeasance of the coalition or any employee of the coalition. … Questions were raised about whether billings were correct or not.”

Hart acknowledged that he had added markups of around 10 percent to bills for services like printing and mailing list rental that he had subcontracted. But he defended that as standard industry practice.

“Markups are part of the whole business,” Hart said.