A hamburger chain manager accused of using “straw donors” to repeatedly contribute to the candidacy of former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva in 2018 has agreed to pay a $50,000 fine for laundering campaign money, according to police. California Fair Political Practices Commission.
The state watchdog said in a January document that investigators found no evidence that Villanueva knew about the money laundering scheme. But commission records show the former sheriff, his 2018 campaign and his then-campaign treasurer agreed to pay a total of $7,500 for violating reporting requirements and failing to return some of the money.
Under the agreement, which the commission will formally vote on later this month, the burger chain's manager, Manuel Gómez, will admit guilt to 10 counts of laundering campaign money.
The other three parties (Villanueva, his treasurer and his campaign) will admit guilt to two charges related to failures to submit reports. Attorneys for Gomez and former campaign treasurer Cine Ivery did not respond to requests for comment. Brian Hildreth, who represents Villanueva, said the language of the agreement made it “very clear” that Villanueva did not know about the plan.
An FPPC spokesperson said the commission does not comment on pending cases. If the proposed settlement is approved, commission documents show it will be the first time since 2017 that the commission has approved a settlement involving multiple counts of campaign money laundering.
He complaint that prompted the investigation was introduced in October 2018. At the time, local Los Angeles County limits prohibited individual donors from contributing more than $1,500 to a campaign in a single calendar year. The complaint highlighted a handful of donations made by various Tam's Super Burgers locations, along with several cooks and servers who worked there.
“The fact that several hourly employees of Tam's Super Burgers and other related companies have made maximum contributions of $1,500 to Villanueva's campaign suggests that employees are being incentivized to contribute to Villanueva, including the possibility that the companies are reimbursing employees for their political contributions,” the unsigned complaint alleges.
Both the initial complaint and a similar one filed days later raised concerns that the business owner, then a reserve deputy and previously supporter of former sheriff Lee Baca – and Villanueva's campaign may have allegedly violated the state's Political Reform Act.
Around that same time, the The Los Angeles County Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation after receiving a complaint from the campaign of Villanueva's opponent, then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell. After interviewing several donors and obtaining warrants for nearly two dozen bank accounts, prosecutors said in a memorandum that they found no evidence that the owner of the hamburger chain had committed a crime. However, some employees told investigators that their boss, Gomez, had asked them to donate.
Investigators searched Gómez's home in 2019 and found items related to Villanueva's campaign, but nothing that prosecutors considered incriminating. In spring 2022, the prosecutor's office decided not to prosecute the case. Prosecutors said the statute of limitations had expired on several possible charges and most donors had said they were only encouraged to donate but that Gomez did not give them money to do so.
The state commission, however, continued with its case. Under the proposed settlement, which a commission spokesperson said is based on agreements from all parties, Gomez maxed out his own donations to Villanueva's campaign with a $1,500 contribution in August 2018. Investigators later found he donated 14 times more using your employees. friends and family as intermediaries, or “front donors,” to whom he provided cash.
“Many of the middlemen did not speak English,” the agreed settlement says. “Some didn't know how to write in English. Almost all the contribution checks were filled out in Gómez's handwriting.”
The 14 donations in other people's names totaled $21,000, according to commission records.
Although Villanueva's campaign reported Gómez's initial contribution, the pre-election campaign statement omitted key information required by law, including occupation and employer fields. That information, according to the agreement, “would have helped illustrate the relationship” between Gómez and the workers who donated to Villanueva.
Whenever that information is missing for a donor, candidates must return the contribution within 60 days, something Villanueva's campaign was unable to do with Gómez's donation or any other donation.
“Although most of the laundered checks were written in Gómez's handwriting, and many of the middlemen who acted as 'maximized' taxpayers were reported in Villanueva's campaign documents as cooks/cashiers at hamburger restaurants – and as waiters – “Villanueva and Ivery claim they did not know that any funds had been laundered,” the agreement says. “Consistent with this, the checks were received during a busy time – the final months before the general election, when many other contributions were being received.”
In an email Tuesday night to the Times, Villanueva reiterated his lack of knowledge about the origin of the money.
“Unfortunately, we too were victims due to the actions of the individual involved,” he wrote. “It was disappointing to hear the DA's office deal with this case for five years as we were denied the opportunity to address the clerical error in a timely manner.”
The agreed-upon deal is on the agenda for the commission's Jan. 18 meeting, at which time the five-member panel is expected to approve it. According to the commission spokesperson, the proposed sanctions would have already been paid.
