CORPORATE EXECUTIVE INVOLVED IN ILLEGAL
CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION SCHEME PLEADS GUILTY
BOSTON, Mass. - Following a guilty plea today in federal court, a Boston-based real estate executive was convicted of engaging in a scheme to conceal illegal campaign contributions made to federal campaign committees. He was also convicted of witness tampering.
Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Office, announced that Martin Raffol, 54, of Natick, pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in a scheme to conceal material information from the Federal Election Commission and one count of witness tampering.
At today’s plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that had the case proceeded to trial the Government’s evidence would have proven that Raffol served as Executive Vice-President for a Boston company that provided management services to a portfolio of real estate holdings, including several publically-subsidized housing communities in Dorchester and Roxbury. As part of its business, executives from the company actively solicited campaign contributions from individuals for elected candidates for federal, state and local office throughout the years. These executives did so primarily to advance the business interests of the company, including to obtain support for public financing of a large-scale, mixed-use development project within the City of Boston. As part of an effort to increase the amount of campaign contributions to candidates who supported the company’s projects or who might support these projects in the future, executives and senior management directed Raffol to solicit campaign contributions from vendors who regularly did work for the company.
Raffol in turn engaged in an ongoing scheme whereby he reimbursed the vendors for thousands of dollars of campaign contributions he solicited from them. This included vendors who provided general contracting services, energy services, and security services. As a result of Raffol’s scheme, the true source of these vendor’s campaign contributions were disguised from the FEC, similar state authorities, campaign committees and ultimately, the public.
U.S. Attorney Ortiz said, “Today’s conviction should be a reminder that schemes aimed at facilitating illegal campaign contributions will be uncovered and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Hiding the true source of campaign funds from election authorities and the public fundamentally impacts the transparency of our democratic system of governance,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. “The Department of Justice is committed to investigating and prosecuting anyone who tries to evade campaign finance laws and conceal the true source of donations.”
In total, Raffol allegedly caused over $12,000 in illegal campaign contributions to candidates running for federal office, specifically candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives. It is further alleged that he also caused over $30,000 in illegal contributions to candidates running for state and local office, including candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, State Senate, House of Representatives, District Attorney, Mayor of the City of Boston and Boston City Council.
This scheme caused numerous reports, which falsely indicated the source of these contributions to be unwittingly filed by the relevant political committees with the FEC and similar authorities.
Raffol further engaged in witness tampering to conceal the illegal campaign contribution scheme and to prevent law enforcement from learning of the scheme. In particular, Raffol instructed a cooperating witness to lie to authorities if authorities questioned him about the campaign contribution scheme.
The Honorable Richard G. Stearns scheduled sentencing for December 8, 2010. Raffol faces up to five years imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for the false statement charge, and 20 years imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for the witness tampering charge.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James Dowden of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit and Senior Litigation Counsel William M. Welch II of the Criminal Division.
