Republican candidate for Rochester Clerk-Treasurer Beth Stocking will not be dropping out of the race despite the Fulton County Democrat Party calling for her to do so.

Fulton County Democratic Party Chair Josh Zehner reached out to local media last week about a scam involving a large sum of money, putting Stocking in the spotlight.

The Fulton County Democrat party is now concerned that the scam proves Stocking should not be in charge of the city's finances. The Fulton County Democrat Party made a statement in the email, "The actions of Beth Stocking detailed in the Rochester and Baltimore police reports show a stunning lack of judgement from someone who wishes to be the city’s top financial officer. The best thing Ms. Stocking can do for the people of the city is to step out of this race immediately."

Fulton County Republican Party Chair Mike Canada says this spotlight on Stocking is purely political. He says the smear will not change Stocking's position as a candidate for Rochester Clerk-Treasurer.

According to police documents, Stocking stated that she was made aware that her bank account had been the victim of fraud in March 2022.  Police documents revealed that on October 21, 2022, Stocking made an official report to the Rochester Police Department. After investigating the case, Rochester Police forwarded the theft to the Baltimore Police Department in Maryland, who had primary jurisdiction over the case.

Upon further investigation, Baltimore County Police documents revealed that on August 10, 2022, police had been made aware of a fraud involving $84,788 being swindled from the company Zentech Manufacturers. According to Zentech employee Malini Ramnath, the company had been working with Dexter Research, when Ramnath received an email with payment instructions and bank account information for an order of raw materials. The large amount of money had been sent and processed on March 14, 2022. On April 19, 2022, Zentech Manufacturers received an email from Dexter Research stating the company had not received the payment. 

Copies of the emails, payment transactions and interactions between Zentech Dallas, LLC and Dexter Research from February 24, 2022, to May 13, 2022, were given to police for the investigation. A subpoena was issued to J.P. Morgan Chase for account holder information in September 2022, revealing Stocking had opened the account on January 15, 2022. 

Investigators would soon find that more businesses were also wiring money to Stocking's account, resulting in $250, 793 deposited in March 2022. Police reports noted that by April 6, 2022, the account balance was $0.00. 
Investigators also found that the account was being utilized for day-to-day purchases in and around the area of the Rochester, Indiana region. After a search on the national law enforcement database, investigators were unable to locate a police report filed by Stocking in reference to her being made the victim of fraud. 

Stocking was contacted by Baltimore County Police Department's Financial and Cyber Crime Team Detective John Pundt via phone and interviewed on October 20, 2022.

According to reports from the interview, Stocking stated that the money deposited into her account was done by a friend that she was in a relationship with, and that she was an accountant. When questioned about why she allowed the deposit to made into her personal account instead of a business account, Stocking stated to investigators that she had still been in the process of obtaining her business license and legalities to open such account. 

Stocking told investigators that due to her friend being in the military and overseas, she had never met him in person, but communicated daily via email. Detectives requested Stocking provide copies of said communications and directions given from her friend, and instructed Stocking to make a police report with local  jurisdiction. 

Stocking was placed on notice of her activity as a 'money mule,' despite the detective on the case not considering Stocking as a knowing suspect in the theft. Detective Pundt informed Stocking that the $84,788 wire transfer she recieved was determined to be part of a fraud scheme. 

Fulton County Republican Chair Mike Canada said that Stocking being victimized from this scam is part of her private life and not her professional life.

While Stocking has taken full responsibility and continues to cooperate with investigators, Canada says the scam taught Stocking a valuable lesson. Unlikely to fall for something like this again, Canada says, if anything, Stocking will be more hypervigilant to suspected scamming activity in the future. 

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