Reports the Examiner:

Occupy DC has raised at least $20,000 since it arrived in the District in early October, according to the group. Protesters say major labor unions like the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union are among the donors to the movement, but spokesmen for both unions denied giving any cash to Occupy.
Occupy’s finance committee, which oversees the account, was quickly overwhelmed with requests for money from various protesters, Occupiers say. There are 23 committees at Occupy — all of whom request funds for their activities — and Occupy spends money on everything from sleeping bags to kitchen supplies to bail for jailed demonstrators.

Last week, a man known to the protesters only as “JT” withdrew at least $5,500 from the account and disappeared.

Occupiers said JT, a finance committee member, has taken as much as $9,800 from the group. JT, who didn’t respond to an interview request, wrote on Twitter that the money he took was “well-spent around camp.”

There’s a weirdly ironic tone to the rest of the Examiner piece—-but that doesn’t change the fact that this kind of conflict is to be expected.

Photo by Amagill via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License