The corruption case involving a Mexican businessman trying to illegally influence San Diego elections widened Wednesday as a City Hall lobbyist was added to the conspiracy charges and politicians rushed to return campaign contributions from those tainted by the scandal.
Marco Polo Cortes, 44, was arrested on a warrant Tuesday in Little Italy and appeared before a federal judge Wednesday on charges that he conspired to finance political campaigns with funds from an illegal foreign source. He faces up to five years in prison.
Also charged in a similar complaint released a day earlier are Ravneet Singh, owner of a Washington, D.C.-based campaign-services firm, and Ernesto Encinas, a former San Diego police detective who retired in 2009.
The Mexican businessman in question is Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, who owns a home in Coronado. He was not named in federal documents, but they included enough information to identify him. Cortes, Encinas and Singh are accused of funneling Azano's money through shell companies and a straw donor to circumvent federal law which prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to campaigns at any level.
One of the biggest open questions of the scandal is why Azano spent more than $500,000 to try to influence San Diego elections. His money ended up helping the causes of District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, a Republican who lost the 2012 mayor's race; Bob Filner, a Democrat who won that contest and later resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal; and an as-yet-unidentified federal candidate on the November 2012 ballot. Azano also tried to help former mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher, a Democrat, although there's no evidence that he spent any money on Fletcher's behalf or that Fletcher knew anything about it. We'll show Detroit how it's done!
#2
I would pass about Judo or biking but Obama kowtowing in front of the Chinese President (that ia a guy who is quite hostile to America) or in front of the Saudi "King" should have been a reason for immediate impeachment.
[VARIETY] Dinesh D'Souza, director of the 2012 documentary "2016: Obama's America," was tossed in the clink Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! and indicted for campaign finance fraud on Thursday, Rooters reports.
The conservative filmmaker and best-selling author allegedly contributed $20,000 in 2012 in the name of others to Republican Wendy Long's U.S. Senate campaign. Long ran for Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Hamilton Fish ... 's vacated Senate seat, but lost to Kirsten Gillibrand.
Sounds like a bundler to me. The Democratic ones get appointed to ambassadorships...
Federal law in 2012 limited election campaign contributions to $5,000 per person per candidate. Breaking this law is punishable to two years in prison.
"As we have long said, this Office and the FBI take a zero tolerance approach to corruption of the electoral process," Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, said in a statement.
Attorney Benjamin Brafman told The Hollywood Reporter that his client "did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever ... at worst this was an act of misguided friendship by D'Souza."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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Ja, ja frau Rietenstahl. I think the Greek columns are a splendid idea.
#2
Straw-donor cases have been brought against prominnent individuals from time to time. For example, in 2011, a prominent Los Angeles attorney, Pierce ODonnell, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor chargest of making $20,000 in donations to the presidential campaign of former Sen. John Edwards and reimbursing straw donors.
But since Dinesh is a Republican it's a much more serious matter.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/24/2014 10:51 Comments ||
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I think just as soon as he gets out, he should do it again and again and again. Political persecution is Obamas playbook. That is why he needs the Narscistic Stalking Agency. To have the ability to datamine anyones email, text messages, phone calls, etc. to dig dirt up on anyone who dares oppose his scrawny kenyon ass.
[FOXNEWS] Conservative activist James O'Keefe is accusing New York Gov. Andrew Sonny Cuomo's administration of targeting his group with document requests and a subpoena, claiming the Democratic governor's recent comments critical of conservatives "aren't simply words."
O'Keefe, whose Project Veritas is behind a series of hidden-camera investigations against left-leaning groups and causes, made the claims on the heels of the controversy over a recent Cuomo interview. In it, Cuomo blasted "extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay" and said they "have no place" in New York. He later walked back his remarks, and said they were being taken out of context in the media.
But O'Keefe claimed that Cuomo's government is acting on those words, revealing that the Department of Labor has hit his office in Westchester County, N.Y., with demands for financial documents for months. He compared it to IRS targeting of conservative groups nationwide.
"Governor Cuomo's shocking words this past week aren't simply words," O'Keefe said in a statement. "Governor Cuomo and the New York Department of Labor are on a witch hunt, demanding all documents and financials since our founding. ... His goal, of course, is to harass us and limit our effectiveness by tying us up in court. Just like President B.O. used the IRS to target and suppress conservatives, Governor Cuomo is using his Department of Labor to do the same exact thing."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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If the Prez can do it, why not the Gov?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/24/2014 8:13 Comments ||
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[NY Times] In a famously left-leaning Hollywood, where Democratic fund-raisers fill the social calendar, Friends of Abe stands out as a conservative group that bucks the prevailing political winds.
A collection of perhaps 1,500 right-leaning players in the entertainment industry, Friends of Abe keeps a low profile and fiercely protects its membership list, to avoid what it presumes would result in a sort of 21st-century blacklist, albeit on the other side of the partisan spectrum.
Now the Internal Revenue Service is reviewing the group's activities in connection with its application for tax-exempt status. Last week, federal tax authorities presented the group with a 10-point request for detailed information about its meetings with politicians like Paul D. Ryan, Thaddeus McCotter and Herman Cain ...the personable but seemingly horny former Godfather's Pizza CEO who coulda been a contenda... , among other matters, according to people briefed on the inquiry.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the organization's confidentiality strictures, and to avoid complicating discussions with the I.R.S.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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Last week, federal tax authorities presented the group with a 10-point request for detailed information about its meetings with politicians
We have a few questions for you, Comrades.
Posted by: Black Charlie ||
01/24/2014 3:44 Comments ||
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There was an interesting video on the Military channel entitled "Mafia vs. KKK." Hollywood leaned left during the days of the KKK. They tended to be allied with the mafia. The KKK was opposed to illegal stills in the south and went about breaking up illegal stills. J. Edgar Hoover enlisted a mafia hit man to squeeze a KKK member. This mafia hit man had a reputation for getting anybody to talk. Military channel show. The video brought out some of the strange bedfellows of this era. The claim by the video was that the mafia tended to be republican whereas the KKK tended to be democrat. I would not have thought the mafia tended to be republican (maybe this was in error in the vid--couldn't say). I know that when JFK (the other one) ran for president, he had the support of Hollywood.
[BOSTON.CBSLOCAL] Residents in Hingham just want some peace and quiet.
And in response to more than 300 noise complaints filed last year, the town's Board of Selectmen says it's weighing an ordinance that would restrict nighttime noise levels to 45 dB, and daytime levels at 55 dB.
"It's really a question of giving police some tools to deal with a quality of life issue," Hingham Selectman Chairman Bruce Rabuffo. Violations would result in $100 to $300 fines.
The current proposal is raising some concerns. The proposed decibel levels of 45 and 55 dB would effectively outlaw use of lawn mowers, snow blowers, and tractors; it could even spark fines for loud conversations.
Rabuffo emphasized that the proposal is just that -- a proposal. He hopes to start a conversation and eventually reach a consensus on noise levels. Yeah. Just don't make the 'conversation' too loud.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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The current proposal is raising some concerns. The proposed decibel levels of 45 and 55 dB would effectively outlaw use of lawn mowers, snow blowers, and tractors; it could even spark fines for loud conversations.
Bruce Rabuffo has this conversation in mind....
Posted by: Black Charlie ||
01/24/2014 3:28 Comments ||
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My first guess was Lincoln, MA (they banned plastic bottles some months ago).
Hingham's 'a beautiful people enclave', in Howie Carr's words (read - rich leftists).
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Ja, ja frau Rietenstahl. I think the Greek columns are a splendid idea. 
