The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said Thursday that former Treasurer Chris Ward apparently funneled several hundred thousand dollars to his personal and business bank accounts from the committee’s funds.

The transfers caused the committee to severely over-report its cash-on-hand totals in recent financial reports.

The NRCC also says Ward, who was the committee’s treasurer from 2003 to 2007, submitted “bogus audit reports” for all five years between 2002-2006. The last year the committee had a full audit was 2001.

Ward was fired as an NRCC consultant when the irregularities were discovered.

In a release, the NRCC said it was beginning to release some of the details of its review because it could do so without compromising a federal investigation into Ward.

On Thursday, NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) briefed GOP members about the situation.

“Paramount to my chairmanship is the integrity and success of the NRCC,” Cole said in a statement.

“However, the evidence we have today indicates we have been deceived and betrayed for a number of years by a highly respected and trusted individual. From the moment we learned that bogus financial statements had been submitted to the bank on our behalf, we took decisive and speedy action by contacting the FBI, which opened a criminal investigation.”

At a Thursday afternoon briefing for reporters at NRCC headquarters, committee staff said Ward operated alone and unchecked for years as he allegedly falsified committee audits.

“As treasurer, Ward was in charge of coordinating the audit…he was …able to authorize transfers without anyone else’s signature,” said Robert Kelner, a partner at Covington & Burling who is outside legal counsel for the NRCC. “In hindsight, it would have been better to have internal controls but it’s not terribly unusual to have less rigorous controls than you see at larger corporations.”

Kelner said Ward went through great lengths to conceal his activities, transferring sums into other committees he had access to and then shifting the funds into his personal accounts.

“We see hundreds of thousands of dollars leaving the NRCC to go to outside committees. We see hundreds of thousands of dollars leaving the outside committees to go to Chris Ward’s accounts. The numbers don’t necessarily match-up perfectly.”

Cole did not attend the NRCC briefing for reporters.

Kelner said Ward submitted five phony audits on stationery from “recognizable firms.”

Kelner said that the forgeries were so thorough that anyone other than an “extraordinary expert in the field” would have thought the documents were legitimate.

It had been reported that no one at the committee questioned the authenticity until Jan. 28, when Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), the NRCC’s auditing chairman and a certified public accountant pushed for a 2006 audit to be completed.

Yet, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) – Conaway’s predecessor at the NRCC – said Thursday he tried repeatedly to meet with Ward and the auditors but was given the runaround for several years.

“I attempted to arrange meetings with the auditors but [Ward] always had seemingly legitimate reasons” for why they couldn’t meet, adding that before his tenure on the committee no one had set a precedent to meet with the outside auditors.

Walden said Ward’s actions raised red flags and he reported his concerns to then NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.) in 2006, who quickly put him in touch with Ward.

“[Ward] would say ‘I’m just as mad as you are,’” Walden said.

 It could take months to determine the full extent of the financial damage the NRCC sustained.

 “How much of that variance is due to misappropriation and how much of it is due to accounting errors is not really something that we can say with confidence,” Kelner said. “It’s going to be a while yet before we disentangle that.”

 If the investigation by auditors and the FBI conclude that Ward is indeed guilty of theft, it is possible that some of the funds could be returned to the committee.

“Sometimes you can get it back through restitution, but the IRS is the first in line,” Kelner said. The NRCC is also exploring whether the committee’s insurance will cover the loss once the final figure is discovered.

Despite the lack of oversight, it was unlikely that the NRCC will be legally implicated, Kelner said.

“We’re not aware of any reason why the NRCC should have legal exposure, particularly because the committee has been very aggressive in disclosing what it knows to appropriate law enforcement authorities,” Kelner said.

Ward was hired at the NRCC in 1995 and became treasurer in 2003. He left the committee in 2007 but remained on as a consultant.

Ward’s lawyer did not comment on the NRCC’s assertions.