There is a scandal unfolding involving Josh Mandel.
As you will recall, Mandel ran against Senator Sherrod Brown in 2012. Billionaires poured millions into his campaign, so much so that Mandel became a poster boy for Citizens United. The billionaires paid millions for horrible generic-wingnut campaign ads that moved no one, but all kinds of consultants and (certainly) media outlets profited from the Unlimited Corporate Cash flooding this state so it wasn’t a total loss. Sherrod Brown won handily, but Josh Mandel remains the state treasurer in Ohio.
Mandel has a donor who was indicted. The donor runs Canton-based Suarez Corporation:
The 35-page indictment charges Suarez, 72, with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government; conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws; violation of campaign finance laws contributions by a corporation; making false statements, obstruction of an official investigation; witness tampering; and obstruction of justice.
The indictment also charges Michael Giorgio, 61, of Cuyahoga Falls, the chief financial officer at Suarez’s company, with assisting Suarez in writing large campaign checks in the names of employees and their wives in an effort to “disguise and conceal from the public and from federal agents” the true source of the illegal contributions.
According to the indictment, Suarez and Giorgio recruited employees and others to act as conduits of the illegal contributions, and wrote checks in their own names and those of their spouses with the understanding they would be reimbursed by the company.
Suarez and Giorgio at first disguised the payments as salary, and later as profit sharing. They inflated the payments to cover taxes, so the full amount of the contribution would be reimbursed, according to the indictment.
it happened in Cleveland, where a federal grand jury returned indictments against the owner and chief financial officer of a direct marketing company based in North Canton that sells a motley mix of products—space heaters, collectible coins, jewelry, and more.
Think of conduits as “straw donors” like a straw buyer. They’re not the actual donor, but they’re acting as a donor. Those of you who are students of political corruption may remember our last huge GOP scandal also involved conduits and….
collectible coins
Coingate. What is it with conservatives and collectible coins?
Anyway. Mandel, acting in his capacity as Ohio treasurer, wrote a letter to the treasurer of the state of California. The letter is bizarre. It demands that California stop investigating Mandel’s crooked donor, the Suarez Corporation:
California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s office was surprised two years ago when it received a letter from Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel on behalf of now-indicted businessman Benjamin Suarez, a Lockyer spokesman said Wednesday.
The letter, which asked Lockyer to rein in potential lawsuits against Suarez’s Canton-based direct-marketing company or risk a possible lawsuit by Ohio, “read like a letter from an ill-informed constituent,” Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar said in a telephone interview.
“It is pretty amazing coming from a state treasurer,” Dresslar said. “He should know better.”
Mandel sent the letter on May 23, 2011, shortly before a number of Suarez’s employees and their spouses began donating a total of $100,000 to the Republican treasurer’s failed U.S. Senate campaign. Suarez and his company’s chief financial officer, Michael Giorgio, were indicted by a federal grand jury last month on charges of using the employees to skirt campaign finance rules.
The California treasurer responded, and told Mandel that he doesn’t investigate wrongdoers, prosecutors do, but he’ll be happy to pass Mandel’s shrieking accusations about prosecutorial abuses along to the proper party.
Mandel has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and a treasurer’s office spokesman said Mandel doesn’t remember writing the letter to Lockyer or a second letter to U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, a Wadsworth Republican, on Suarez’s behalf.
h/t Plunderbund
Ruckus
Is there anything that conservatives can’t fuck up?
WereBear
It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.
Grifter dreams, that is. Very popular because it has implied value (money!) and yet can be made of very cheap materials compared to what they sell it for.
Sucker bait. Republican voters can literally be sold anything.
Baud
Lots of violations of free speech here. #chiefjustice
srv
Pretty soon, judges will have to stand up and stop all this wide-spread disrespecting.
People need to know their places.
eldorado
criminal charges, for once.
RaflW
Personal responsibility!
It’s for poors who want gov’t help but should bootstrap instead. But not ever, ever for elected Republicans.
Napoleon
The first 6 or 7 years I practiced law was in Canton and the general opinion of Suarez was that he was a dirty/crooked/completely lacking in ethics business person. He has a stronger smell of fraud about him then anyone else in town.
karen
I’m not sure I understand but is this like money laundering? Or is it like someone with a license who buys a car in their own name but it’s really for the guy with a suspended license?
I saw Suarez’s photo on Plunderbund’s website. Is it just me or does the guy look like Borat?
MattF
Transient Global Amnesia!:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/magazine/a-brief-vacation-from-myself.html
Sleepwalking! Sleepletterwriting! Cash-induced cognitive dysfunction! Wait… let me rephrase that!
pamelabrown53
@WereBear: “What is it with conservatives and collectible coins”.
Simple answer: Goldbugs. You’ll find lots of ’em in the middle of the Glenn Beck/Paulite Ven diagram.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: NO
Kay
@karen:
Exactly. Here, they ordered employees to write checks and then reimbursed the employees.
It got the attention of the Toledo Blade because the donations were much bigger than one would think, coming from people who make (say) 30K.
Also 13 of the 15 straw donor employees had never made a political donation before, and all of a sudden they’re writing big checks to Josh Mandel.
TheOtherWA
@karen: Yes, because it’s hiding the source of the funds. Some millionaire can donate way above the contribution limits.
Kristine
@TheOtherWA:
So, could a SC decision removing campaign finance limits make this go away, or would the decision only impact federal elections?
Goblue72
This is why we shouldn’t have campaign finance laws. /wingnut
Roger Moore
I noticed this in the letter, which seems to be a typical libertarian anti-lawsuit theory:
Mandel apparently hasn’t heard of punitive damages, or at least doesn’t believe in them. I think it’s entirely sensible to demand more than their actual profits, since that’s the only way the suit can possibly have a deterrent effect.
TheOtherWA
What is it with Ohio conservatives and collectible coins?
TheOtherWA
@Kristine: I was wondering that myself. IANAL, but it may depend on what the SC allows to stand. If disclosure is still required (hahaha!) there’s still fraud here, but cases like this may very well get dropped.
That’s just a guess. I’m quite sure it’s the goal of the reich wing.
eta-I just saw your Q about federal vs state laws. I assume most state campaign laws are based on federal versions, they’re usually quite similar. But then these were contributions for a US Senate seat, so maybe federal law applies here. I have to read the full article.
Stillwater
Kay, what’s the matter with Ohio? Ya’ll are so corrupt out there you can’t even pull off a perfectly good scam.
And why does the word “Cuyahoga” always seem to crop when the Ohio shit hits the Federal fan?
Kay
@Roger Moore:
It’s a horrible company.
Good for California for enforcing their consumer protection laws. We need much more of that. It’s been so nice to watch the CA AG and the NY AG work in that direction, generally. LONG overdue. The mania for unregulated markets encouraged a lot of crooks.
? Martin
@Roger Moore:
As a core principle, libertarians don’t believe in deterrence.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Is this the guy that used to wear a rubber glove on his head?
Kay
@TheOtherWA:
It reminds me a little of Glenn Beck and the gold, but you’re right, it may be state-specific.
Stillwater
Grifter dreams [and] sucker bait.
That’s about it.
Roger Moore
@karen:
The idea is that individuals are generally limited in the size of contribution they’re allowed to make to political candidates to minimize the risk of defacto bribery. To get around those limits, people like Suarez ask their employees to make donations, then reimburse the employees for “their” contribution plus any tax consequences. This is obviously an attempt to do an end-run around campaign finance laws, and it’s usually explicitly illegal. With employees, it’s doubly dirty because there’s an implicit threat of punishment if the employee doesn’t allow the employer to make contributions on their behalf.
TheOtherWA
@Kristine: This is a federal case, not state.
KG
@Roger Moore: punitive damages? Hell, it appears he’s never heard of “actual damages”, as in you lied to me, inducing me to spend $5,000 on your product. You may have only profited in the amount of, say, $2,000, but I’ve been damaged in the amount of $5,000 because that’s what I paid.
TheOtherWA
OMG, these people are delusional.
They want something to happen, therefore it should happen! I’m gobsmacked. (no, I’m not British, but I love that phrase.)
Burnspbesq
Old-school political corruption, soon to be rewarded with a stay in an old-school Federal prison.
Bwahaha.
mdblanche
@Ruckus: Conservatives are the kind of guys that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. We should be watching them.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
As a core principle, libertarians don’t believe in laws that interfere with them doing WTFTW.
Roger Moore
@Burnspbesq:
I doubt it will be in an old-school prison. It will be in the kind of prison that’s reserved for rich, white collar criminals, assuming he isn’t acquitted, let off because Supreme Court overturns campaign finance laws, or given a ridiculously light sentence in light of him being older, a pillar of the community, etc.
Frankensteinbeck
@pamelabrown53:
Don’t forget the conspiracy theorist element. A big part of the attraction is the belief that gold coins will still be valuable when the government collapses.
Stillwater
@TheOtherWA: I’m a bit confused about this. Was the letter written to blackmail Suarez by making him think there was potential legal action against him on the table?
ETA: no that’s not right since Suarez was consulted on the contents of the letter. Hmmm. I don’t get it.
aimai
@mdblanche: Since they are behind us, we can’t keep an eye on them.
Roger Moore
@Stillwater:
It was written to convince Suarez that Mandel was doing his best to protect him against the lawsuits. Once the letter was sent, Suarez rewarded Mandel for sending it by giving him the campaign contributions. It’s basically impossible to tell who came up with the idea, Suarez asking for Mandel’s help or Mandel offering his help in expectation of a reward, but it looks corrupt as hell either way.
Shakezula
And there you have 90% of WTF is wrong with the Republican Party (not to be confused with the Base).
I really think these people are five seconds from shitting in the street and then throwing a tantrum because people don’t rush over to inhale the delightful odor.
TheOtherWA
@Stillwater: Mandel and his team proved to Suarez they were working to get rid of his problems with CA investigations, so then Suarez started making huge illegal contributions to Mandel as a thank you.
aimai
How can Mandel not have been “accused of any wrongdoing?” He wrote a letter threatening the California DAs in the execution of their duty and he threatened a countersuit (a SLAPP action) as well. And he implicitly admitted that the Ohio companies had, in fact, violated California law–he just asked them to cut a brother a break.
I also love the indignation with which he expressed his horror at one state “costing” another one jobs and the assertion that when a job is lost in Ohio the entire work force goes on public assistance. What about right wing triumphalism and git ‘r done heartland grit? Imagine the letters he must have written to Governor Perry when he was shopping around his state to every other state in the union as a better place to relocate and bring jobs?
aimai
@Shakezula: Oh bingobangoboingo. I think they are doing it as you type.
Stillwater
@Roger Moore: Ahh, thanks. Yeah, it’s corrupt as hell. I just still don’t get the “Suarez helped write the letter” part. If they were already in collusion, what could be gained by sending such a letter to Cali? Am I missing something obvious here?
ETA: I mean, on the assumption that Cali wasn’t already looking into their situation. Then it makes some sense. But cali wouldn’t be looking at Ohio-based corruption, would they? Why would they?
TheOtherWA
@Roger Moore: I need to read thru the entire thread after refreshing. Your answer was clearer than mine.
J R in WV
Remember, one of the primary reasons conservatives are members of the Republican party is because they’re so dumb they never look up the facts about which party provides the most profit for efveryone.
Anyone can look up the profitability of businesses in general (or specific types of business down to amazingly small slices) over time. Then anyone can see which political party was in power when businesses profited most.
Not surprisingly, businesses make FAR more money when the Democratic party is in power!!
This has always made me wonder why businessmen are so happy to support the Republican party. The sorts of incidents discussed here sheds light on one reason – if you want to run a fly-by-night corrupt business, you need a political party willing to support your crooked business paractises.
Think about it for just a minute. Warren Buffet is famously wealthy – and famously ethical about how he makes his money. Hell, he isn’t even giving most of his forture to his kids, he’s donating it to good causes!
The same for George Soros – a billionaire who spends his fortune on good works.
Then there’s the Koch boys – willing to make a buck on homeless people’s back. Just like the Walton kids. And these folks are all big supporters of Republicans, especially the Republicans who are willing to stop regulating business, so that Enron-type business practises can be conducted in broad daylight, instead of in back alleys at night!
Here in West Virginia we had a governor who was corrupt, and met in the back of limos parked behind the municipal waste incinerator to receive giant payments to corruptly bend the enforcement of the laws for big businesses. He was (unfortunately for him) recorded by the wire the FBI had on the briber, and spent time in a federal prison.
He actually pled guilty at first, and then claimed he got bad legal advice and wanted a trial. But he was a lawyer, and the judge was having none of it, and sent him right off the the slam, to much applause to honest people all over the state.
He is the father of Shelly Moore Capito, currently a Congresswoman and candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Senator Rockefeller. I’m sure she has a shiny golden conscience after growing up surrounded by corrupt activities. She used to take dear old felonious Dad to campaign events, because he was tremendously popular with Republicans.
Who, let us remember, are probably either too dumb to recognize crooks, or are themselves crooks.
Villago Delenda Est
Ah, the shitty grade Z movie star defense. A Rethug classic!
TheOtherWA
@aimai: Yet. Mandel hasn’t been accused yet. There’s no way they aren’t investigating him.
Stillwater
@TheOtherWA: Thanks TOWA. That’s what I was wondering about.
Stillwater
@Villago Delenda Est: What’s weird about that defense – the Alberto Gonzalez Defense – is that it completely undermines the justification of that particular person holding a position of power. If they’re so forgetful that they can’t remember important letters and decisions, they ought to be kicked right to the effing curb.
Kay
@Stillwater:
I think it was a straight quid pro quo. Mandel promised the letter in return for campaign contributions. One of the indicted actually worked with the treasurer’s office on the letter.
It’s funny, because it’s just grift all around.
California doesn’t have any duty to take direction from the Ohio treasurer, and it would actually look really bad if CA prosecutors did back off because they got a letter from Josh Mandel.
So. Either Mandel AND his donor are too stupid to know the letter is useless, OR Mandel knows the letter is useless, but Mandel’s donor thinks a prosecutor in California gives a rat’s ass about Josh Mandel’s theories on the proper enforcement of California consumer protection laws.
Mandel is not qualified for his job, so he might actually believe he can give orders to California prosecutors, but he can’t.
Stillwater
@TheOtherWA: OK, now I’m confused again. And here’s where: was california, in fact, looking into Suarez’ activities on some level prior to and independently of the shenanigans?
I think I must be missing something obvious here.
Ruckus
@mdblanche:
I obviously know the answer, I was just looking for some better way to say it.
You provided it.
@aimai:
We can still feel it though.
Roger Moore
@Stillwater:
As I understand it, Suarez’s company was being investigated for business fraud in California, and Mandel decided/agreed to help out by sending a letter to Bill Lockyer asking him to pressure the DAs to lay off to protect the company. Mandel, in an attempt to prove how much he was willing to help out, apparently let Suarez help draft the letter. California didn’t know anything about any kind of illegal collaboration between Mandel and Suarez, so the letter looked like a typical, if rather ham-handed, attempt by a state official to help out business interests in his state. The obvious corruption aspect only came out later when the relationship between the two was investigated in more detail.
rikyrah
He doesn’t remember writing the letter.
BWA HA HA HA HA HA
SO, the dog ate his homework….
what a crooked clown.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I read that and thought of you, Kay! I’ve been hoping to see your post on it. Documentary evidence that in addition to being the sleazy slimy douchecanoe those of us on Ohio all knew Mandel to be, he’s also dumber than a bag of hammers. Which is not a revelation to us either, but was much more difficult to get outsiders to believe. “Why would the GOP run an idiot for Senate?” The answer being, of course, because in Ohio it often succeeds.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
My guess is that the detailed response will be that it was sent out by an over-eager assistant without the boss knowing than that the boss did send it but can’t recall. Not that letting the subordinates do blatantly illegal stuff while protecting the boss by not telling him is any less Reagan-like than displaying symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Ruckus
Kay
I lived in OH for a decade and remember the name but not why I knew him as a douchebag. What, other than him being a repuke, would have given me that impression?
Kay
@efgoldman:
They were. Unfair business practices. Suarez sells crap all over the country. Ohio county prosecutors do the same thing, they go after out of state companies that sell in Ohio because the county resident who was ripped off complains to the prosecutor.
We had one here on behalf of doll collectors. They sent the money but never got the dolls. It was quite the big deal. It was sad, because they strung them along, had them drive to pick up the dolls at turnpike rest stops and then no one would be there, like that.. There’s an amazing amount of money changing hands around collectible dolls, I must say. I had no idea.
Roger Moore
@efgoldman:
And he addressed the letter to the CA Treasurer rather than the AG, though he apparently copied the AG.
Stillwater
Roger, Kay, ef, others: thanks for clearing that up for me.
Itallmakessensenow!
Kay
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
How much do you love that the treasurer sent the letter to the treasurer? WTF? Does he not even know what the job duties are in government? Does he think treasurers trump prosecutors? Or, maybe he thinks treasurers are sort of a club, and they all work together VERSUS prosecutors?
I also love how he thinks “number of jobs” is a defense to unfair business practices. “oh, he’s a JOB CREATOR? Why didn’t you say so? I’ll just order the county prosecutors to protect the job creator.”
My only regret is that he didn’t bring the attorney general in on this scheme, although there is a vague reference to how “other” Ohio…people are pretty mad at California.
The Pale Scot
Suarez?
Sounds Mooslum.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
I’m pretty sure that’s it. He doesn’t really care about whether innocent people are screwed over by corrupt businesses as long as money keeps rolling in, so he assumes that other state treasurers will feel the same way.
Stillwater
@Kay: Yeah, now that I understand the dynamic in play, the level of incompetence combined with ignorance is pretty astounding. So I want to ask you again: what’s the matter with Ohio? You guys seem to consistently re-up the bar for corruption in gummint.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
It’s really popular here when county prosecutors go after fraudsters from out of state. People love it.
People love consumer protection, generally. It’s right up there with “sunshine laws”. I don’t know how conservatives got away with saying it isn’t important, or it’s a regulatory burden or whatever. No one likes to get ripped off, and so many people seem to be really vulnerable. The whole conservative-libertarian mantra of “let the buyer beware” doesn’t translate, at all, to how angry people are when it happens to them. They want blood.
scav
OT. UNI’s got a transgender Homecoming queen. Oh, that complicated middle is going to mess with people’s preconceptions again. Splodey headed wailings. Iowa can be sneaky and unpredictable.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
I suspect this is another example of talking in code and living inside a bubble. Business owners and Republican politicians understand that “eliminating unnecessary regulations” is code for destroying consumer and environmental protection laws and “tort reform” means preventing consumer lawsuits, but a lot of the rubes like those things because they think they’re legitimate attempts to eliminate unnecessary impediments to business. Politicians who stay inside the bubble for too long can be convinced that public support for “eliminating unnecessary regulations” and “tort reform” means the same thing that businesses understand it to mean, and wind up very surprised when those policies wind up being very unpopular with their constituents.
burnspbesq
@efgoldman:
If you haven’t done so already, read the indictment. This isn’t a case that’s going to rise or fall based on live-witness testimony. The documents described in the indictment are no-doubt-about-it admissible as evidence, and they are sufficient to prove every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Unless defense counsel have a hat full of rabbits, it’s hard to foresee an acquittal.
Ken
@Roger Moore: As a core principle, libertarians don’t believe in laws that interfere with them doing WTFTW.
I think you’ve confused libertarians with sociopaths. A lot of people do.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ken:
Oh, there’s no confusion there at all. Libertarians very much object to laws that were written to protect the rights of anyone but themselves, particularly those that impact them by saying “you can’t do this, buster.”
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
Sociopaths are just more willing to run you over getting to their goal. Libertarians want to convince you first.
debbie
He doesn’t remember??? Wonder if he also doesn’t remember calling Kevin Boyce (an African-American Christian) a Muslim in the 2010 race for treasurer? Probably not, since he refused to apologize.
Mandel is a monster. I cannot wait until he arrives at the Nothingness Ranch hosted by Ken Blackwell.
Roger Moore
@Ken:
When I meet a Libertarian who isn’t a sociopath, I might be forced to change my mind.
Ken
@Ruckus: I think we’re working toward a new joke here: “What’s the difference between a libertarian and a psychopath? One traps his victims and subjects them to hours of excruciating torment while expounding his insane theory of life, and the other stabs people to death.”
Needs work, and I doubt it will ever be up there with John Rogers’ “two novels” quip, but perhaps worth pursuing.
BruceFromOhio
In other news, sun rises in east. Water? Still wet!
Pictures at 11.
Kay Dennison
@Napoleon:
I was desperate for a job & decided that I would drink poison than work for poison than work for Suarez. Eventually he bought the firm I had worked for