#Dole Campaign may have Received Illegal Funds

Question:

Dole Campaign may have Received Illegal Funds

Desperate men do desperate things. HAHAHAHAHAHHH! Doncha’ jus’luvit? <G BluLu 2

Response:

Dole Campaign may have Received Illegal Funds Desperate men do desperate things. HAHAHAHAHAHHH! Doncha’ jus’luvit? <G

And this isn’t the first time this sort of activity has popped up in a Dole campaign. An alert Kansas City user forwarded me the following news story from September of last year: FEC Declares Its Inquiry on Dole Campaign Closed James Kuhnhenn, Washington Correspondent, The Kansas City Star, September 9, 1995. WASHINGTON – Seven years ago, in the midst of Sen. Bob Dole’s 1988 presidential campaign, a fund-raising scandal ensnared his top money man -former Lt. Gov. Dave Owen. This week, as Dole held on to front-runner status for the 1996 presidential race, the Federal Election Commission released hundreds of pages related to its investigation of the illegal contribution scheme and declared the matter closed. The documents, which the commission accumulated since 1988 and had remained sealed, depict a brazen pattern of illegal fund-raising involving Owen and top officials at a now-defunct Overland Park company, Birdview Satellite Communications, Inc. Dole requested the FEC probe after The Kansas City Star first reported the fund-raising irregularities in 1988. Owen, according to the documents, was fined $13,000 in 1989 for making a $10,000 donation to the National Republican Senatorial Committee for which Birdview reimbursed him. Several top Birdview officers, and in some cases their wives, were fined at least $1,000 each for accepting company reimbursements for their political contributions to Dole’s 1984 Senate campaign. In the end, the FEC found nothing to implicate Dole. "The record should demonstrate that Sen. Dole had now knowledge nor condoned that type of illegal activity," Dole spokesman Nelson Warfield said Friday. According to the FEC documents, which support The Star’s original report in January 1988, Birdview employees were encouraged to make donations to Dole and other candidates for national office. The company then reimbursed the donors out of company funds. Federal campaign laws prohibit such reimbursements because they would be tantamount to direct corporate donations, which are illegal. Birdview was founded in 1980 by Charles "Bud" Ross to manufacture satellite dishes for television. It filed for bankruptcy in 1986. The illegal contributions discovered by the FEC occurred between 1982 and 1985. The Dole campaign received $15,250 during that period from Birdview employees, all of whom were reimbursed by the company. The biggest chunk of money – $9,000 – came from a 1983 fund-raiser hosted by Ross and arranged by Owen, who at the time was president of the Dole for Senate Committee and a consultant to Birdview. Owen and Dole parted ways and Owen eventually was found guilty of tax evasion in an unrelated case involving campaign contributions. He was release from prison last October after serving nearly seven months. In a telephone interview Friday, Owen said that though he did not contest the FEC’s findings against him, he still didn’t believe he did anything wrong. "As far as I was concerned it was no big deal," he said. "It was pretty much standard procedure in representing someone. It goes on in Washington every day." Though Dole was unscathed by the Birdview scheme, the FEC is 1993 did fine his 1988 presidential campaign committee $100,000 for violating federal campaign laws. An FEC audit found that Dole’s campaign exceeded spending limits in Iowa and New Hampshire, accepted illegal corporate contributions and improperly used a separate political committee he controlled to further his campaign. In addition to Owen’s fine, the Birdview case also resulted in $1,150 fines against Robert Owens, Birdview’s vice president of marketing, and his wife, Betty, and $1,050 fines against Steven Phillips, Birdview’s vice president of engineering, and his wife, Sharon. The FEC levied $1,000 fines against Ed Hackerott, vice president of finance, and Edward Lane Gibson, another Birdview vice president. Seven other Birdview employees were fined $700 or less. Sound pretty familiar now that you mention it. Jim "I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it." Voltaire

Response:

Hey Voltless, what is the point?? You people proved in ‘92 that character don’t count so why are you worrying about it now?? Bob Dole could be a dishonest as the day is long and could never be as crooked as Bill Clinton. I’ll bet that when Clinton dies, they’ll have to screw the sumbitch into the ground like a corkscrew.

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so what

Response:

Vote Bob Dole. He’s a Crook but a Conservative Crook! I knew they would find a campaign slogan they could all get behind sooner or later! Jim SUPPORT PRESIDENT CLINTON! Call (415) 968-6330 and express your support for his fight against the GOP Fascists. 24 Hours a day!

Response:

It is the hypocricy!!! Was England poorly governed because Churchhill was a lousy father? [all evidence suggests that Bob (leave your kids with me) Dole wasn't much of a father when he had a chance -- he didn't even have dinner with wife or daughter for months at a time] Was Eisenhower less effective as Supreme Allied Commander or as President because he was unfaithful to his wife? Was Reagan a poor President because he lied virtually every time he opened his mouth — confusing old movies and Reader’s Digest stories with reality? Character is important when we are talking about behavior in office e.g. lying about Iran Contra; it isn’t all that important when it is not related to policy [e.g. the sex lives of virtually every President we know of in the 20th century] Is Dole unfit for office because he dumped his wife and acquired a trophy wife once he had gained success? No. We should vote for him or not based on where we think he is going to take the country. The same goes for Clinton. j

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dole Campaign may have Received Illegal Funds Reuter Information Service, April 21, 1996 KANSAS CITY, Mo - Sen. Bob Dole’s presidential campaign may have received thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions through a money laundering scheme,the Kansas City Star newspaper said in a copyrighted article published Sunday. The Star’s story said workers at a Massachusetts sporting goods company said they were told to donate money to the Dole campaign in exchange for cash reimbursements. The company, Aqua-Leisure Industries, is run by Simon Fireman, a Dole campaign official. The paper said that Fireman, his workers and their families last year sent the campaign 40 individual checks totalling $40,000. Three of those contributors said some workers were handed stacks of $100 bills and were told to write checks made out to "Dole for President," the paper said. "I knew it was illegal–especally when they gave me cash," the paper quoted one of the contributors as having said. "You just don’t see people with that kind of cash." Interviewed Sunday on the CBS show "Face the Nation," Dole said he knew nothing about the report. "I don’t know anything about it … As far as I know, an allegation has been made and ought to be checked. If somebody did that, they’re in deep trouble," he said. The Star said five people claimed to know about the scheme, which, if true, would have circumvented federal limits on campaign contributions and would have camouflaged the real source of the money. The paper said the workers’ allegations were supported by bank records, federal campaign reports and other evidence. But a lawyer for the company was quoted as saying workers received only their usual pay and that no one laundered contributions. "I can categorically deny those things happened," attorney Richard Stein was quoted as saying. The story said Fireman, a national vice-chairman of finance for Dole’s campaign, was a major Republican fund-raiser, a trade adviser to three past presidents and most recently served as a director of the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

Aqua-Leisuregate is almost a carbon copy of a 1988 fund rasing scheme that landed former Kansas Lt. Gov. Dave Owen in the pokey. Owen was quoted in the Star piece that Dole’s deniability regarding these new allegations is "typical Dole: selling out his friends to protect himself."

Response:

Dole Campaign may have Received Illegal Funds Reuter Information Service, April 21, 1996 KANSAS CITY, Mo - Sen. Bob Dole’s presidential campaign may have received thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions through a money laundering scheme,the Kansas City Star newspaper said in a copyrighted article published Sunday. The Star’s story said workers at a Massachusetts sporting goods company said they were told to donate money to the Dole campaign in exchange for cash reimbursements. The company, Aqua-Leisure Industries, is run by Simon Fireman, a Dole campaign official. The paper said that Fireman, his workers and their families last year sent the campaign 40 individual checks totalling $40,000. Three of those contributors said some workers were handed stacks of $100 bills and were told to write checks made out to "Dole for President," the paper said. "I knew it was illegal–especally when they gave me cash," the paper quoted one of the contributors as having said. "You just don’t see people with that kind of cash." Interviewed Sunday on the CBS show "Face the Nation," Dole said he knew nothing about the report. "I don’t know anything about it … As far as I know, an allegation has been made and ought to be checked. If somebody did that, they’re in deep trouble," he said. The Star said five people claimed to know about the scheme, which, if true, would have circumvented federal limits on campaign contributions and would have camouflaged the real source of the money. The paper said the workers’ allegations were supported by bank records, federal campaign reports and other evidence. But a lawyer for the company was quoted as saying workers received only their usual pay and that no one laundered contributions. "I can categorically deny those things happened," attorney Richard Stein was quoted as saying. The story said Fireman, a national vice-chairman of finance for Dole’s campaign, was a major Republican fund-raiser, a trade adviser to three past presidents and most recently served as a director of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. (415)968-6330 Would you like my home address for your .sig too? I’ll gladly give it to you.

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