Filing A False Report

Lobbyists and employers are prohibited by law from knowingly filing a false Initial Registration Statement or Activity & Expenditure Report.  If a lobbyist or employer discovers an unknowing omission of lobbying activity or an expenditure on a filed Activity & Expenditure Report, the report must be amended using OLAC.

Anytime a reportable person will be named as an expenditure recipient on an Activity & Expenditure Report, the lobbyist or employer must provide a non-disputed notice in writing to that person at least ten days before filing the Activity & Expenditure Report.  If the running of the ten-day notice period will result in missing the filing deadline, the filer should NOT file a report omitting the expenditure in order to meet the filing deadline.  Although the filer’s intent may be to simply amend the report later and add the expenditure, the filer has knowingly filed a false report.

Please note: JLEC has and will continue to work with the lobbying community on filing reports in a timely and accurate manner.  If a lobbyist or employer believes a deadline will be missed due to the ten-day notice requirement, please contact JLEC at 614-728-5100.

More in-depth information on this topic and more is available in the Ohio Lobbying Handbook.