For plotting to misrepresent donors’ genuine names to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), a Super PAC’s president and treasurer were today given a 14-month prison term.
A $150,000 fine and three years of probation were imposed on the Super PAC, which was also sentenced today.
Joseph Fuentes-Fernandez, 62, of Arlington, Virginia, and Salvemos a Puerto Rico, the Super PAC for which he served as president and treasurer, admittedly raised money to support the 2020 election campaign of Public Official-1, who was then running for a position in the executive branch of the government of Puerto Rico.
Fuentes and others established two phantom 501(c)(4) nonprofit social welfare organisations not long after Salvemos a Puerto Rico was founded.
These two 501(c)(4) organisations shared certain officers, listed the same mailing address, and were registered seven minutes apart.
Fuentes further acknowledged that he and others raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations for the two fictitious charity organisations, the most of which were quickly transferred to Salvemos a Puerto Rico.
Instead of disclosing the exact source of the monies, Fuentes and Salvemos a Puerto Rico then told the FEC that the nonprofit organisations were the donors of the funds.
The only reason these donations were made through nonprofit organisations was to keep the donors to Salvemos a Puerto Rico’s true names a secret.
Fuentes, for instance, texted a possible contributor in October 2020 with the following message: “You can use a third party to not expose the genuine donor.”
Fuentes and Salvemos a Puerto Rico denied the people of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the FEC knowledge about the true source of hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing into Puerto Rico’s political system by working to ensure that many of the true donors to Salvemos a Puerto Rico remained anonymous.
The announcement was made by Special Agent in Charge Joseph González of the FBI’s San Juan Field Office, U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow for the District of Puerto Rico, and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
The matter was looked into by the FBI’s San Juan Field Office.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth A. Erbe for the District of Puerto Rico and Trial Attorney Jonathan E. Jacobson of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section.