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Guilty Plea for Foreign Money in U.S. Campaigns

A California luxury car dealer pleaded guilty Thursday to a scheme that moved hundreds of thousands of dollars from a foreign national into U.S. campaigns.  

Marc Alan Chase  pleaded guilty Thursday to eight counts of violating federal campaign finance laws, including making a contribution in the name of another, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting contributions by a foreign national.  

Fox News reported  the plea agreement included an acknowledgement that Chase conspired with Mexican businessman Jose Susumo Azano Matsura , Washington, D.C. Election Mall owner Ravneet Singh, private security firm owner Ernesto Encinas, and lobbyist Marco Polo Cortes, to make illegal campaign contributions to the 2012 mayoral campaigns of Bonnie Dumais and former Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., and the congressional campaign of Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif.  

Encinas had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Singh and Cortes have pleaded not guilty to similar charges of trying to hide the contributions.  

View earlier article  in the San Diego Free Press, “The Story Behind Those Illegal Campaign Contributions in San Diego.”

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