According to recent stats there were 781 million registered Steam games, out of which a whopping 493 million have been played by the users. With such a large number of options, anyone can feel the need to spend some money; even if you are a Congressman using your election campaign funds to the tunes of $1300!
No kidding, Congressman Duncan Hunter has been called in for question by the Federal Election Commission for the 68 purchase transactions that he has made using the account that is dedicated to campaign funds.
The transactions were made last year between October 13 and December 16 and were recorded as “personal expenses” that were to be paid back soon. However, Hunter has not paid them back which is why he is being probed.
In his defense, Hunter says that it is his son who has been making the purchases. He claims that his son took his credit card to make one purchase but made 67 more in the process.
Interestingly, Hunter is trying to get the Steam games purchases reversed, calling in the Steam refund policy to the task. Of course no step has been taken by Valve Corporation yet. On the other hand, here’s the House of Ethics Committee’s take on the matter:
Campaign funds are to be used for bona fide campaign or political purposes only. Campaign funds are not to be used to enhance a member’s lifestyle, or to pay a member’s personal obligations… Members have no discretion whatsoever to convert campaign funds to personal use.
Whether it was his son or not, and whether he was supposed to make one purchase or more, it will be interesting to see how his campaign gets affected for not paying back and how Valve reacts to his request of reversing the transactions on all 68 Steam games.
