Police: Shoulders spent thousands in campaign dollars on baseball cards, IU season tickets

EVANSVILLE – Former Vanderburgh County Commissioner Ben Shoulders used tens of thousands of dollars in campaign money to buy baseball cards and basketball season tickets, among other purchases, and then tried to report the expenditures as fraudulent in an effort to recoup some of the money, Evansville police say.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Vanderburgh Circuit Court late Wednesday, Shoulders spent more than $41,000 on eBay purchases using a debit card assigned to his "Shoulders for Commissioner" account. He would then list the buys on his campaign finance forms as something else.

"Signs" was actually a $235 Johnny Bench rookie card, the affidavit states. "Banner" was a $570 Satchel Paige card.

Police also obtained records from Shoulders' email addresses that allegedly show confirmation emails for a $3,000 purchase for 2020-21 Indiana University men's basketball season tickets.

A detective investigated reported donations to charities as well, such as the Ronald McDonald House and SWIRCA. When investigators called those organizations, however, they claimed they never received any such donation. Police say checks that correspond with the days of the supposed donations ultimately ended up in one of Shoulders' business accounts.

The Courier & Press left Shoulders a message seeking comment Thursday morning. He was arrested on a warrant Wednesday. He faces preliminary charges of attempted fraud, a Level 5 felony; two Level 6 felony counts of filing a fraudulent report with the Evansville police; misdemeanor counts of false informing and commingling committee funds with personal funds; and an infraction for unpermitted use of money contributions.

He was booked into the Vanderburgh County jail Wednesday afternoon, but has since been released on $500 bond, records state. His initial hearing was set for 1 p.m. Thursday. Court records didn't list his attorney as of late Thursday morning.

Bank records cited by police show Shoulders attempted to recover more than $26,000 from Old National Bank's fraud department in December 2023. His request was turned down.

He resigned as the Vanderburgh County's District 1 commissioner about a month later.

"It has truly been an honor to serve our great county as a public servant," he wrote in a statement at the time.

Shoulders reported 'fraudulent purchases' to Evansville police

Evansville police disclosed the investigation in a news release Wednesday afternoon. The affidavit, however, goes into much greater detail.

The investigation began in October 2023 when Shoulders himself contacted now-EPD Chief Phil Smith. He was "requesting a report after he discovered ... fraudulent purchases on his bank account," the affidavit states.

During a phone conversation with a detective, Shoulders said he didn't have a suspect in mind. But he did remember losing his debit card sometime around that April. The disputed purchases, he said, ran from May to August.

He eventually provided statements from his "Shoulders for Commissioner" Old National account to police. They spanned between May 1 and Aug. 23. All but four of the listed purchases were from eBay.

"The account balance at the beginning of that period was $80,937.93, while the ending balance was $42,963.82," the detective wrote in the affidavit.

For the next few months, the detective and Shoulders emailed back and forth as police attempted to get subpoenas from eBay. In those emails – some of which police quote verbatim in the affidavit – Shoulders reportedly confirms he's the only signer on the campaign account. He also claims he called the bank to cancel his debit card after allegedly losing it.

He eventually provided his full card number, allowing police to get a record of the buys from eBay. When the records came in, they showed 111 purchases totaling $26,101. All of them were made through the same eBay account, and all were shipped to Shoulders' address, the affidavit states.

Some of the purchases police highlight are:

• A 1965 Mickey Mantle card

• A 1967 Mickey Mantle card

• A 1966 Willie Mays card

The four non-eBay purchases were a $99 trip to Book Broker and three restaurant bills totaling more than $677. All of the came after Shoulders claimed he had lost his card.

When the detective emailed Shoulders to ask if those were legitimate, he reportedly said yes.

The campaign finance report

From there, the detective dove into Shoulders' campaign finance report from March 2024.

"Most of the items appeared to be normal expenses associated with a political campaign," the affidavit states. "However, there were a few that were concerning."

Those included the eBay purchases for "sign" and "banner" that allegedly turned out to be baseball cards. There were also two expenditures to Hobby Den that totaled almost $500. They were both marked "sign." But when police obtained receipts from the store that corresponded to the listings on the report, they showed the money had actually been spent on two Pokemon cards.

Email and bank records show evidence of IU season ticket purchase

In June 2024, a detective also obtained all the statements for the "Shoulders for Commissioner" bank account, as well as email records from Shoulders' Yahoo account.

In the bank records, police noticed a $3,000 purchase from Oct. 5, 2020 that traced back to Indiana University. It corresponded with an Oct. 5 listing on the campaign reports in which Shoulders reported spending $3,000 for "sponsorship."

After searching the email records, the detective eventually found emails from the IU ticket office from Oct. 1, 2020 asking Shoulders to update his payment information. Later that day, another email from IU came in thanking Shoulders for his payment. The total was $3,000.

"The last four digits of the card are the same listed on the bank statement, and the dollar amount is the same," the detective wrote in the affidavit. "This indicated that Shoulders used his campaign funds to make the payment toward his 2020-2021 IU season tickets."

Checks to local charities

Police continued to comb through the finance report. Several expenditures listed for ads in the City County Observer or donations to the Ronald McDonald House or SWIRCA didn't align with listings in the bank statements.

A detective eventually found a check for $2,500 made out to "BNA" that matched the date of the expenditure toward the CCO. He then searched Shoulders' Yahoo account and found a message he sent to a banker at Field & Main asking her to open a business account in his name. He listed the business as "BNA Management."

Police then uncovered four more checks to "BNA," all of which had dates that corresponded to listings in the campaign report. The campaign report claimed the expenses were for the charitable donations, as well as a payment to Shoulders' campaign treasurer. After subpoenaing records from Field & Main, however, police reportedly discovered all of the checks – totaling $12,500 – had been deposited in Shoulders' business checking account.

More email records, and Shoulders speaks to police

Earlier this year, police obtained records from Shoulders' campaign Gmail via a subpoena. They were full of eBay order confirmations for even more pricey baseball cards that topped $15,000 in total. There were rare Topps cards for Ted Williams, Pete Rose, Hank Aaron and others.

They were all purchased with Shoulders' campaign debit card. And they were all shipped to his house, police say.

On Sept. 18, investigators called Shoulders into police headquarters for an interview. He reportedly told police he had reported "some eBay charges that weren't made by me" to Old National Bank. He said he spoke to their fraud department, saying he would be happy with getting "half" the money back. He was never reimbursed.

He continued to say he had lost the debit card associated with the campaign account. When police asked him about those four non-eBay charges that Shoulders previously confirmed as legitimate and that came after the date he reported losing his card, he wondered if those had been paid by check.

"I showed him the bank statement that detailed those charges and it showed they were card purchases," the detective wrote in the affidavit. "Shoulders said he would have to look into those and let me know."

The affidavit doesn't say if Shoulders offered an explanation for the eBay purchases.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: What is Ben Shoulders accused of doing by police?