Ford overspent on campaign, filing alleges

Two Toronto residents allege that Mayor Rob Ford breached campaign finance laws by spending $70,000 above the allowable limit during his campaign.

Max Reed and Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler have asked the city's compliance audit committee to order a probe and decide whether any laws were broken. It is the third request toaudit the mayor's election spending.

"Election finance is a fairly grey area of the law," Chaleff-Freudenthaler told CBC's Jamie Strashin. "There are lots of places where there's loopholes, where candidates of all stripes have taken advantage."

The filing alleges that Doug Ford Holdings Inc., a family company that bears the name of Ford's brother and fellow councilor, paid more than $77 thousand in campaign expenses then invoiced Ford's campaign.

Reed and Chaleff-Freudenthaler allege this could be considered a loan which, if not from a bank, is against the rules.

They also allege Rob Ford miscategorized expenses related to direct mailing and telephone campaigning.

Reed worked on left-leaning Coun. Mary Fragedakis's campaign while Chaleff-Freudenthaler is a longtime community activist, but the men say their filing is not a partisan attack.

"We continue to look into other candidates' filings and if there's anything we see there, we will also file on those candidates," said Chaleff-Freudenthaler.

On Friday, the compliance audit committee, which is composed of three citizens, will decide whether to proceed with two earlier audit requests.

The Mayor's office said Ford has followed the rules and is fully co-operating.