Crapo Lost Campaign Investment in Failed Las Vegas Company

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo's ex-campaign manager blames his friend for making a "less-than-professional" investment of $250,000 from political donors in a Las Vegas company amid the 2008 financial crisis.

That's according to documents released Monday by Crapo's office, three days after the Republican senator announced he was amending his Federal Election Commission filings to reflect losing the money. Crapo's former manager, Jake Ball, says in a sworn affidavit Crapo gave him latitude to boost returns, though Crapo says he didn't learn of this investment until the money was lost.

Ball says he gave the money in September 2008 to his friend, Gavin McCaleb. McCaleb says he invested it with Las Vegas-based Pyramid Global Resources, hoping for a big return within just two months. McCaleb said Pyramid's agreement "was a fraud."