Puerto Rican governor faces 19 counts (campaign finance probe, pledged as Obama superdelegate)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 3/27/08 | Manuel Ernesto Rivera - ap

[NormsRevenge]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila was charged Thursday with 19 counts in a campaign finance probe, including conspiracy to violate U.S. federal campaign laws and giving false testimony to the FBI.

The indictment also charged 12 others associated with Acevedo's Popular Democratic Party as a result of a two-year grand jury investigation, acting U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said.

Acevedo, a superdelegate for the Democratic Party who has pledged to support Sen. Barack Obama, served in Washington as the island's nonvoting delegate to Congress and was elected governor in 2004 after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform.

Acevedo denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the indictment as nothing but politics and "a spectacle designed to damage me."

His written statement did not go into specifics about federal prosecutors' alleged motives. But in the past Acevedo has said U.S. authorities targeted him for his criticism of a September 2005 FBI raid in which a fugitive Puerto Rican militant was killed.

The defendants in Puerto Rico, Washington and the Philadelphia area are accused of conspiring to illegally raise money to pay off Acevedo's campaign debts from his campaigns in 2000 and 2002 to be the U.S. island territory's nonvoting member of Congress.

"The governor will be permitted to turn himself in deference to his position," Rodriguez said.

He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, Rodriguez said. Acevedo said he will turn himself in Friday morning.

At least five others named in the indictment were led in handcuffs into the U.S. federal building in San Juan early Thursday morning.

Thomas Green, a Washington-based attorney for Acevedo, said he had not yet reviewed the charges but criticized the election-year indictment as "an unprecedented and undeserved intrusion by the federal government" in Puerto Rican affairs.

Acevedo's claims of persecution have support in Puerto Rico, where many feel a deep-rooted nationalism and hostility toward the U.S. federal government.

Rodriguez rejected any suggestion that the indictment was driven by politics.

"Nobody is above the law. We all lose when electoral processes are compromised ... for our part, we are not politicians, we do not make political decisions," she said.

Acevedo, 46, and his associates are accused of conducting unreported fundraising to far exceed funding limits during his 2004 campaign for governor. As part of the fraud, they allegedly used their own or their companies' money to cover unreported debts to the campaign's public relations and media company.

The 55-page indictment alleges that Acevedo also personally helped a group of Philadelphia-area businessmen in their efforts to obtain Puerto Rican government contracts after they delivered illegal campaign contributions from their own staff and family members.

Acevedo's party favors maintaining the island's semiautonomous relationship with the U.S. mainland. His leading opponent in this year's governor's race favors making Puerto Rico the 51st state.

[NormsRevenge]

Puerto Rico's Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila delivers the annual State of the Territory speech in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in this Tuesday, March 6, 2007 file photo. Gov. Acevedo Vila was charged Thursday, March 27, 2008, with 19 crimes, including conspiracy to violate U.S. federal campaign laws, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and giving false testimony to the FBI. The indictment also charged 12 others associated with Acevedo's Popular Democratic Party as a result of a two-year grand jury investigation, acting U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

[NormsRevenge]

Acevedo denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the indictment as nothing but politics and “a spectacle designed to damage me.”

—

spitzer, vila,, is Kwame Kilpatrick a superdelegate too..? Oh my. the dems ,, tsk tsk ,, talk about your Culture of Corruption

[weegee]

Meanwhile Tom DeLay’s showtrial has yet to come to court.

[Corin Stormhands]

bookmark

[Ann Archy]

Just ANOTHER Crooked RAT politician.

[goldstategop]

A Puerto Rico Democrat goes to jail. What a shock!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[NormsRevenge]

Acting U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez, center, speaks during a news conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, March 27, 2008. Rodriguez announced that Puerto Rico's Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila was charged with 19 crimes, including conspiracy to violate U.S. federal campaign laws, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and giving false testimony to the FBI. The indictment also charged 12 others associated with Acevedo's Popular Democratic Party as a result of a two-year grand jury investigation. At left is Michael E. Yasofsky, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation Division, and at right Luis Fraticelli, the top FBI special agent on the island. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

[marron]

Acevedo, 46, and his associates are accused of conducting unreported fundraising to far exceed funding limits during his 2004 campaign for governor. As part of the fraud, they allegedly used their own or their companies' money to cover unreported debts to the campaign's public relations and media company.

Like the Clintons haven't done the same thing.

I'm not a fan of campaign finance laws, but goose/gander.

Acevedo denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the indictment as nothing but politics and "a spectacle designed to damage me."

This is the problem of enforcing these kinds of laws. Inevitably it will look political. If the wrong-doer loses the election, prosecuting him looks like the winner piling on. If he wins, fat chance he will investigate himself.

In this case, the feds are doing it, and it looks like Repub feds going after an innocent Dem.

in the past Acevedo has said U.S. authorities targeted him for his criticism of a September 2005 FBI raid in which a fugitive Puerto Rican militant was killed.

If true, it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

[NormsRevenge]

Puerto Rico's eighth elected governor Anibal Acevedo Vila delivers remarks after taking the oath of office in San Juan, Puerto Rico in this January 2, 2005 file photo. Acevedo Vila and 12 political associates in the Caribbean island and on the U.S. mainland were charged with election funding fraud in an indictment unsealed on March 27, 2008. The charges said Acevedo Vila collected illegal contributions and spent far more than he reported during his election campaigns from 1999 to 2004. REUTERS/Ana Martinez/Files (UNITED STATES)

[Clemenza]

This is par for the course in PR. If ever our little Third World colony ever becomes a state, the best that could be said is that it would make New Jersey look like a paragon in ethics.

[Anti-Hillary]

This guy, Kwame, Spitzer and Patterson. Not to mention the traitors who went to Iraq and Clinton and Obama....

Can we say, “Party in meltdown”?

[Typical_Whitey]

Culture of Corruption...

[Anti-Hillary]

Love your screen name and tagline! See my tagline for a good laugh!

[Typical_Whitey]

Love it....

[NonValueAdded]

Can Superdelegates vote from jail? There are at least 3, are there not?

[NormsRevenge]

Dems can vote from ‘the other side’, jail should be no problem. ;-)

when it rains, it pours..

Howard Dean must be thrilled.

[VeniVidiVici]

Paging Nancy Pelosi and her CULTURE OF CORRUPTION cabal.

My, my. The Democrats have been busy getting arrested lately! (And still no (D) after the names.)

[No Surrender No Retreat]

I wonder if he is on Social Security Disability, like the majority of the residents there???

He should be Obuma running mate, they would get along fine.

Respectfully,
NSNR

[jmaroneps37]

Tell me this guy wears dark glasses and has people call him El Presidente!