Charges In L.A. Campaign Money Laundering

(AP)  Two owners of a Florida business that operates airport concessions were charged Wednesday with laundering more than $25,000 in political donations to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's 2005 campaign.

County prosecutors said Villaraigosa's campaign staff reported suspicions about the contributions and cooperated with investigators. Villaraigosa was re-elected to a second term on Tuesday.

Sean Anderson, 44, and and Richard Manhire, 39, owners of Miami-based Travel Traders, were each charged with one count of felony conspiracy to commit a crime and a misdemeanor count of improperly identifying a campaign contributor.

Deputy District Attorney David Demerjian said Anderson had dinner with Villaraigosa in September 2004, when he was running for mayor, and offered to contribute to his campaign.

Travel Traders had no concessions at Los Angeles International Airport at the time, but the airport's existing contracts expired in May 2005, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Travel Traders' treasurer collected $1,000 checks from employees, who were reimbursed with cash from company accounts. Prosecutors said the men told employees they wanted contributions to Villaraigosa to obtain airport contracts.

Demerjian said $45,000 was delivered to Villaraigosa's campaign by Travel Traders' employees and associates, of which $39,000 was allegedly laundered contributions. The charges only include $25,000 in illegal contributions.

California campaign laws bar individuals from making a contribution in a name other than their own.

Before the 2005 election, Villaraigosa's campaign announced it had sent back $47,000 received from workers at two Florida gift-shop companies and their relatives. It was reported then that some of the workers could not explain their donations and one company was considering seeking a concessions contract at Los Angeles International Airport.

If convicted, the two men face a maximum of six months in jail and a fine of up to $100,000. An arraignment date has not been set.

There was no immediate response to messages left by The Associated Press at Travel Traders' offices requesting comment on the charges.

Villaraigosa's spokesman, Matt Szabo, would not comment.

The Travel Traders Web site says the company has more than 200 retail stores in hotels and airports across the country.

[GODSnLIBERALS]

the Los Angeles Times will make sure this gets buried

[___One_American___]

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, La Raza, and the Mexican drug cartel are one in the same.

[roystoll2]

How can the party of Obama, Geithner, Barney Frank, Franklin Raines, Christopher Dodd, Herbert Moses, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, John Conyers, Roland Burris, Al Franken, John Murtha, et. al. accuse any other group of lying and corruption with a straight face. Is that a lightening bolt I see? At the expense of being accused of being racist, isn't that the same as the pot calling the kettle black?

[txlakeside]

dongo ... you are exactly like you described. Only I am sure you have a job working as a gas station attendant or sandwich artist! Obama is not a Communist and I doubt you could even define the word you backwoods, ignorant dumb as dirt redneck! I am a Democrat, I think for myself, I have a job, I pay taxs and really am smart enough to realize idiots like you are more help to the DEMOCRATIC PARTY than 100 volunteers. ROFLMAO!

[DefendLiberty]

Pay to Play, I thought that only worked in IL and Chicago!! Guess they exported it to LA and CA. Sure is good to know that politicians are in it for the good of the people and not the money in their pockets!!!
Posted by platteman at 9:45 AM : Mar 5, 2009
_______

Another "thinking challenged" Rush and Hannity Parrot. If this parrot actually READ the article, they would see that the Mayor's OWN CAMPAIGN brought the suspicious contributions TO THE ATTENTION OF THE PROSECUTORS. The CAMPAIGN saw something that did not look right and REPORTED IT.

But the facts to not matter to the parrots. Parroting is a learned behavior. First you take some facts, then you put them in a blender and take them out in random fashion. You then extract the "inconvenient" facts that do not match your fanatical agenda. Then you put the remaining facts together in whatever way will make your point, regardless that the newly arranged facts have nothing to do with reality. Call it "parrotism", an affliction of the far right talking heads and their minions.

[platteman]

Pay to Play, I thought that only worked in IL and Chicago!! Guess they exported it to LA and CA. Sure is good to know that politicians are in it for the good of the people and not the money in their pockets!!!

[staycalm]

The important question here that was not asked is...did Travel Traders get a concession contract at LAX? Do they have one now? 2005 was four years ago, what has happened in the interim? It is hard to believe that Travel Trader's execs would stong-arm contributions from their employees and then refund $47,000 of them if they hadn't been assured of contracts by Tony Blagojevich Villaraigosa.

[WillowOne]

Yeah, how strange...but good trick....turn in a couple of your illegal campaign contributions, make yourself look like a good guy...but make sure nothing's in the news till after the election...just in case they decide to investigate his other contributions.