Longtime St. Paul Rep. John Lesch long used campaign cash from donors to line his personal coffers, a state investigative report found.

After working with Lesch, his treasurers — one of whom is the representative’s wife — and investigating the situation for more than three years, the campaign finance board fined the lawmaker $20,000 for the violations.

Lesch on Tuesday said he did not use the campaign money for personal gain.

The amount of the fine is one of the larger — if not the largest — civil penalties levied against a lawmaker for campaign violations in the state, according to the board’s executive director Jeff Sigurdson. Although the board often levies penalties against lawmakers for incorrect bookkeeping or other matters, it rarely finds cases of officials using campaign money for their own benefit.

The board concluded that Lesch, a Democrat, transferred money from his campaign account to his personal account at times when there otherwise would have been “insufficient funds” without the campaign cash.

“Rep. Lesch’s immediate need for resources in his personal accounts at or close to the time of the unexplained transfers further supports the Board’s conclusion that the transfers were for personal use,” the campaign finance board’s report says.

Lesch denied to the board and in a statement that he used the nearly $9,000 moved from his official campaign account to his personal bank account for his own purposes over the course of three years. But the board found no evidence to the contrary. According to the agency’s report, Lesch repaid his account a little more than $2,000 in 2013 and $1,000 in 2014.

The board found that in many cases, what his campaign committee reported to the state about its finances was not properly documented and some transfers were “indicative of a high level of inattention and carelessness.” The board found transfers, errors or “discrepancies” in Lesch’s reports from 2010 to 2014.

Lesch said in a statement that he worked with the board and was disappointed with its conclusion but was “happy to have this matter resolved.”

“I acknowledge that the campaign did not maintain adequate records of its expenses. The record keeping, passage of time, and changes in campaign treasurers made it difficult to reproduce the details of transactions that occurred between four and seven years ago. The Board’s conclusion that funds were converted to personal use is unfounded,” he said in the statement.

Lesch said that he worked with volunteer treasurers — as do most legislative campaigns — but takes responsibility for the sloppy bookkeeping. An attorney, he said he was in a jury trial and would give no further comment.

Lesch has represented St. Paul in the state House since 2002. This spring, he said he would run for attorney general next year.

The St. Paul Democrat is not the first lawmaker, or former lawmaker, to have been found to meld his own need with cash from his campaign.

Last month, the board concluded that former Republican Sen. Branden Petersen made payments to himself from his campaign account. He claimed he had a “loose attitude” about what could be reimbursed. But he also said he realized his errors — and his sloppy bookkeeping — would catch up with him and resigned his seat mid-term. The campaign watchdog agency also levied financial penalties on Petersen but of an amount lesser than those charged to Lesch.

Of the civil penalties assessed in Lesch’s case, $15,000 was levied against him personally for using political funds for his own benefit and $5,000 was levied against his campaign committee for filing false or inadequate reports. The fines must be paid within a month.

“If Rep. Lesch or the John Lesch for State Representative committee does not comply with the provisions of this order,” the campaign agency’s report concludes, “the board’s executive director may request that the attorney general bring action.”

READ THE CAMPAIGN FINANCE BOARD’S FINDINGS:

This story has been updated to correct the amount of the fine.