Posted on 11/14/2003 9:16:14 AM PST by HAL9000
Mark Jimenez gets 2 years for election fraud
A U.S. federal court sentenced Thursday (Friday in Manila) ousted Manila congressman Mark Jimenez to more than two years in jail for federal election fraud.
Jimenez was sentenced to 2 1/4 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.2 million restitution on his guilty plea to election conspiracy and tax evasion charges. He handed over a check for the first $400,000.
The court ruled that Jimenez contributed illegally to the campaigns of then-president Clinton and other Democrats, including then-senator Robert Torricelli of New Jersey. He also became a confidante of jailed ex-president Estrada.
Jimenez returned to the country after Clinton was caught up in fund-raising scandals. He was then elected to the House of Representatives, but was ousted after his extradition.
Jimenez said he hoped his guilty plea would serve as "a lesson in my country" where political corruption is frequently alleged but rarely admitted. Estrada is on trial for allegedly plundering the national treasury.
Jimenez, 56, used money from his Miami company to reimburse employees for illegal donations to Clinton and other Democrats.
Jimenez made about $41,500 in illegal contributions and caused false information to be submitted to the Federal Election Commission, the Justice Department charged.
Besides his conspiracy plea, he admitted two tax charges for using an Uruguayan company to funnel a tax-free $5 million out of the United States.
Defense attorney David Markus told the judge that Jimenez already has been debriefed by the government on claims that his former corporate tax attorney, Mitchell Fuerst, committed misconduct by coordinating the tax evasion.
A call for comment to Fuerst's office was not immediately returned.
Markus said Jimenez has been falsely called one of the richest men in the world. Jimenez estimated his net worth at $2.5 million before learning last month about a $16 million bankruptcy court judgment against him for the collapse of one of his companies.
Markus challenged a probation report that he said falsely implied Jimenez was involved in the corruption that forced Estrada from office in 2001.
U.S. election regulators last year broadened a ban on campaign donations by foreigners in response to 1997 hearings into Democratic and Republican fund raising.
The Federal Election Commission imposed a record $719,000 in fines in a case involving Democrats accused of soliciting illegal contributions from foreigners for the 1996 election in exchange for meetings with Clinton and then vice-president Al Gore.
Jimenez's scheme covered contributions to Clinton, U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy and Torricelli, U.S. Senate candidates Roger Bedford in Alabama and Thomas Strickland in Colorado, and U.S. House candidate Ann Henry in Arkansas from 1994 to 1996.
abs-cbnNEWS.com monitor
If he'd married a woman like Hillary! TM US Media LLD a wholly owned subsidiary of Hillaryfax inc. he'd have spent that money getting elected to the presidency of the Phillipines, where he'd be safe, instead of it's House.
It is a mystery, isn't it?... Good catch!
I thought the "John" usually got busted also.
What is nicely skated over in this article is the fact that the DemoncRATS intentionally and willfully accepted that money w/out batting an eye and fully expected that al gore would win the election in 2000 and this never would have surfaced. Ahhhh, The Hellish Clintoon Legacy continues.
Bill and the Torch? They must keep the money, but I am sure Bill "feels Jimenez's pain".
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