Thread: How a Mexican Citizen Allegedly Funneled $500,000 of Illegal Money into US Elections

How a Mexican Citizen Allegedly Funneled $500,000 of Illegal Money into US Elections


—By Andy Kroll
| Thu Jan. 23, 2014

This week, the FBI and Department of Justice busted a Washington, DC-based political consultant and an ex-detective turned private security contractor in a money-in-politics scandal seemingly ripped from the pages of All the President's Men.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the US district court in southern California, a wealthy Mexican national allegedly funneled more than $500,000 into local and federal campaigns in the San Diego area. That, of course, is illegal. Federal law bars foreign nationals from making contributions to political candidates. So the Mexican businessman—who is unnamed in the complaint—allegedly used retired San Diego detective Ernesto Encinas, political consultant Ravneet Singh, and an unnamed straw donor to inject his money into several California-based elections.

The Mexican businessman and his co-conspirators are accused of making illegal campaign expenditures in support of four different candidates. To support a San Diego mayoral candidate, the Mexican and the ex-detective set up a super-PAC and guided $100,000 in foreign money through a shell corporation into the super-PAC. In another case, the Mexican businessman gave $380,000 to a straw donor (who was identified as an American citizen in the complaint), and the straw donor then cut checks to assorted campaigns and political committees in the San Diego area.

None of the candidates who received the Mexican businessman's support are named in the complaint, but two of them are believed to be San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and former mayor Bob Filner. Dumanis and Filner faced each other in the city's 2012 mayoral primary. In December, Filner was sentenced to 90 days in home confinement, three years' probation, and fines totaling nearly $1,500 for assaulting three women while serving as San Diego mayor.

Then there's Ravneet Singh, the DC consultant who founded the company ElectionMall, which provides digital media services for political campaigns. Around February 2012, the Mexican businessman paid Singh and ElectionMall about $100,000 for Internet ads and key word placements to help elect a San Diego mayoral candidate. The money was transferred into ElectionMall's account by a Mexican company, and the online ad spending never appeared on expenditure records as it should have under state and federal campaign laws.

Later that year, in October, Singh and Encinas, the ex-detective, approached a general election candidate in San Diego's mayoral race candidate offering social media services to the candidate's campaign. When asked how much those services would cost, the complaint says, Singh and Encinas responded that it was "taken care of." Soon after, ElectionMall received another $190,000 from the Mexican-based company. Because the candidate's campaign was never billed, the complaint alleges that Singh, ElectionMall, and Encinas "facilitated illegal in-kind contributions" in violation of campaign law.

You can read the full Justice Department complaint against Singh, ElectionMall, and Encinas below. And you can wonder who will play the Mexican businessman, the ex-detective, and the consultant in the movie.

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http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014...o-electionmall

Mexican moneyman linked to launderer

Businessman testifies that his company received $2.5M from Azano's company

By Morgan Lee
JAN. 23, 2014

A Mexican businessman implicated in a scandal over illegal foreign campaign donations to San Diego politicians has been drawn into a money laundering investigation by the Mexican Attorney General's Office.

Federal authorities in the U.S. allege that José Susumo Azano Matsura is the source of $500,000 that made its way into local elections, even though he is not a U.S. citizen and not allowed to fund campaigns here. He maintains a home in Coronado, although his primary based of business operations is Mexico.

A businessman under investigation for money laundering and tax fraud by Mexican authorities has testified that his employer received 33 million pesos ($2.5 million) from Security Tracking Devices, a business run by Azano that supplied cell phone tracking equipment to the Mexican military.

The allegations by businessman Carlos Ambe Buzali were reported Thursday by the Mexican daily newspaper Reforma. A spokesman at the Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the matter or supply additional information. Ambe is under investigation for his role at the company Comercializadora Piter.

Further details about the transactions between Comericializadora Piter and Security Tracking Devices were not available.

The Coronado Cays home of Azano, 48, was raided Wednesday in the widening campaign finance probe on the U.S. side of the border. In Mexico, Azano figures prominently in a family industrial portfolio of construction and security companies anchored in the state of Jalisco.

U-T Watchdog reported in 2011 that Azano was the financial backer behind Ramon Eugenio Sanchez Ritchie, a rancher from Baja California who claimed he was forcibly removed from his property after executives from San Diego-based Sempra Energy bribed Mexican officials for permission to build a liquified natural gas plant. A U.S. federal inquiry into the matter resulted in no law enforcement action.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...s-allegations/

Sadly, I am to the point where little surprises me anymore. <sigh>

http://www.alipac.us/f9/mexican-puts...ctions-296323/

FEDS: MEXICAN TYCOON EXPLOITED SUPER PACS TO INFLUENCE U.S. ELECTIONS

February 13, 2014
SOURCE: FP

In a first of its kind case, federal prosecutors say a Mexican businessman funnelled more than $500,000 into U.S. political races through Super PACs and various shell companies. The alleged financial scheme is the first known instance of a foreign national exploiting the Supreme Court'sCitizens United decision in order to influence U.S. elections. If proven, the campaign finance scandal could reshape the public debate over the high court's landmark decision.

Until now, allegations surrounding Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, the owner of multiple construction companies in Mexico, have not spread beyond local news outlets in San Diego, where he's accused of bankrolling a handful of southern California candidates. But the scandal is beginning to attract national interest as it ensnares a U.S. congressman, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign firm and the legacy of one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in a generation.

Under longstanding federal law, foreign nationals are prohibited from donating to political campaigns at the state, local and federal level. On January 21, the U.S. Attorney's Office accused Ravneet Singh, proprietor of the Washington campaign firm ElectionMall, and Ernesto Encinas, a former San Diego police detective, of using Azano's money to support three Democratic politicians and the city's Republican district attorney. Azano wanted to turn the San Diego bayfront into a West Coast version of Miami's bustling waterfront, but lacked the political clout to do so, according to prosecutors. In order to buy support for the project, he's accused of doling out illegal contributions to politicians.

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Feds%...0/0/0/Y/M.html