Prior to the Vote Yes on 2 for Maine political action committee being formed for the Oxford County casino effort, the casino project was funded by the MaineCasinoNow.com PAC.

The PAC, controlled by Rumford Attorney Seth Carey, reported being $13,592 in debt today. Carey had led the casino referendum drive prior to selling the project to Olympia Gaming in Las Vegas last month.

The PAC’s name is MaineCasinoNow.com. The Web address MaineCasinoNow.com used to direct to Carey’s Web site for the casino project, but now is an empty domain.

All of the money in MaineCasinoNow.com was donated by Carey, the most recent contribution taking place on July 20 in the amount of $20,000.

Most of the expenditures reported were small, and pertained to promoting the casino at various fairs and festivals. Two expenditures exceeded $10,000.

Six days after the purchase was announced, Carey reported $12,727 in credit card debt as an expenditure. Attorney Dan Billings said that this was not the proper means of reporting.

“The specific credit card purchases should have been listed as expenditures and the credit card debt as debt and a debt payment,” Billings said in an e-mail.

Four days after the casino project was purchased by Olympia Gaming, Carey’s PAC paid $15,000 to attorney Stephen Chute, the same person who represented him in a misconduct trial this week. Chute works for the same law firm as Carey, which is owned by Carey’s dad.

It is unclear if the legal services were for the casino effort or Carey’s personal legal troubles. Attorney Dan Billings said that it would not have been illegal for Carey to use his PAC funds for his personal legal expenses, but would be an odd move given that there were no benefits to it.

Chute had been paid minor fees for the casino effort from the PAC in the past.