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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (6405)	10/1/1998 11:05:00 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 67261

Democratic Backer Charged in Straw Donor Scheme By Michael J. Sniffen Associated Press Thursday, October 1, 1998; Page A07 Miami businessman Mark B. Jimenez was indicted yesterday for allegedly using phony contributors to make $39,500 in illegal contributions to President Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign and Democratic congressional candidates. Jimenez, 52, who has met with Clinton over coffee at the White House and played golf with him, was charged in a 17-count indictment in U.S. District Court here. He was the 12th person charged by the Justice Department campaign finance task force. "We are not letting up," Attorney General Janet Reno said. The alleged straw contributions to the Clinton campaign totaled $23,000 and were made in connection with a Sept. 19, 1995, fund-raiser at the Sheraton Bal Harbour in Miami, the indictment said. The other $16,500 went to a handful of other Democratic candidates. Jimenez is chief executive and majority owner of Future Tech International Inc., a distributor of computer components and peripherals in Miami. Jimenez and his company have contributed several hundred thousand dollars to the Democratic Party and other causes, including restoring Clinton's birthplace. His attorney was not immediately available for comment. The indictment charged that Jimenez conspired with unnamed others in a scheme "to seek influence and promote the interests of Jimenez and FTI with political leaders in federal government and in the Democratic Party." But it gave no examples of any interests that were promoted. Jimenez has said he sought nothing in return for his contributions. In 1997, the White House confirmed that Jimenez alerted the government to the possibility of a military coup in Paraguay, where FTI does business. The United States took steps with the Organization of American States to avert the coup. Jimenez reportedly gave $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee the day after the coup attempt began, but those contributions were not the subject of any of yesterday's charges against him. The White House said at the time there was no link between the donation and administration policy on Paraguay. The indictment charged that donors who made contributions to Clinton and the others were reimbursed in a scheme to conceal that Jimenez was violating the $1,000 limit on personal contributions and that his company was violating the ban on corporate contributions. The straw donors were employees of FTI and of Mark Vision Computer, a Miami-based company owned by a close relative of Jimenez, the indictment said. Initially, the employees were reimbursed for their contributions through the FTI and MVC payrolls, the indictment said. In May 1996, the conspirators switched to a "less traceable cash method" of reimbursing donors using checks from Jimenez's personal bank account switched for corporate cash, the indictment said. The other alleged illegal contributions were $6,000 to the reelection of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), $2,000 to Thomas L. Strickland's Senate campaign in Colorado, $4,000 to Roger H. Bedford's Senate campaign in Alabama, $2,500 to Robert G. Torricelli's Senate campaign in New Jersey and $2,000 to Ann Henry's House campaign in Arkansas. The Kennedy donation was in 1994; the others were in 1996. © Copyright 1998 The Associated Press