Posted on 02/06/2012 5:37:02 PM PST by kristinn
Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fund-raisers and donors for President Obama’s re-election campaign.
The casino owner, Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, known as Pepe, jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 and disappeared, and has since been linked to violence and corruption in Mexico. A State Department cable in 2009 said he was suspected of orchestrating the assassination of a business rival and making illegal campaign donations to Mexican officials.
When The New York Times asked the Obama campaign early Monday about the Cardonas, officials said they were unaware of the brother in Mexico. Later in the day, the campaign said it was refunding the money raised by the family, which totaled more than $200,000.
SNIP
Although the two brothers live and work in Chicago, they maintain ties to Pepe Cardona in Mexico. Alberto Cardona operates an advertising agency in Mexico that has worked for political candidates backed by his brother, according to public records and Mexican news reports. Public records also show that the domain name for the Web site of a restaurant Pepe Cardona owns is registered to Alberto Cardona.
Obama campaign officials said most of the money raised by the Cardona brothers came from themselves and other relatives, donations of about $200,000. In addition, the campaign was identifying other donations, believed to total less than $100,000, that was bundled from other people.
SNIP
Pepe Cardona is one of the largest players in Mexico’s violent and tumultuous casino trade. SNIP The State Department cable, which was part of the cache made public by WikiLeaks, said that he was suspected of illegally funneling $5 million into Mexican political campaigns in 2006.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There were so many:
http://gopcapitalist.tripod.com/hillary-dealer.jpg
thanks kristinn, additional locked topic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2843227/posts
In Chicago, bribery is just a part of doing business. Always has been.
As recently as January of last year, one of Mr. Cardona’s brothers in Chicago, Carlos Rojas Cardona, arranged for the former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party to seek a pardon from the governor for Pepe Cardona, according to prosecutors in that state. None was forthcoming.
Last fall, Carlos Cardona and another brother in Chicago, Alberto Rojas Cardona, began raising money for the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The Cardona brothers, who have no prior history of political giving, appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the world of Democratic fund-raising, Democratic activists said.
Although the two brothers live and work in Chicago, they maintain ties to Pepe Cardona in Mexico. Alberto Cardona operates an advertising agency in Mexico that has worked for political candidates backed by his brother, according to public records and Mexican news reports. Public records also show that the domain name for the Web site of a restaurant Pepe Cardona owns is registered to Alberto Cardona.
Obama campaign officials said most of the money raised by the Cardona brothers came from themselves and other relatives, donations of about $200,000. In addition, the campaign was identifying other donations, believed to total less than $100,000, that was bundled from other people.
(snip)
Whatever the family’s motivation, the president cannot pardon someone for state crimes. On Monday, Democratic fund-raisers who have had encounters with Alberto and Carlos Cardona expressed surprise upon learning about their family history. Manuel Sanchez, a Chicago lawyer who is deeply involved in Latino outreach for the Obama administration, said he first met them in December at a finance committee meeting for the president’s campaign in Washington.
(snip)
One of them, a long exposé in September by a Mexican magazine, Proceso, chronicled Pepe Cardona’s relatively swift rise to fortune and notoriety in Mexico after fleeing the American authorities. He obtained Mexican gambling licenses, and with help from investors in Louisiana, he started opening casinos in and around Monterrey, eventually becoming known as Mexico's “casino czar.”
The article reported that Tango Media, an advertising company it said is owned by Alberto Cardona, worked on the campaigns of politicians favored by Pepe Cardona in communities where he owned casinos. It also said Carlos Cardona was involved in one of Pepe Cardona’s business deals.
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http://thegazette.com/2011/10/16/fall-from-grace/
Casinos connected to drugs, politicians
Gambling has boomed in Mexico in recent years.
Proceso has reported that the number of gambling enterprises went from 123 in 2000 to at least 790 in 2011. An estimated 12,000 people work in the industry.
Monterrey, the third-largest metro area in Mexico, has been the scene of escalating violence from rival drug cartels. Gunmen entered the city’s Casino Royale on Aug. 25, setting a fire that trapped patrons and killed more than 50 people.
“I follow the cartels, and they are extremely active in the casinos,” said George Grayson, a government professor at Virginia’s College of William & Mary. “The corruption in that segment of the economy is ubiquitous.”
Rojas-Cardona was in the middle of this web, according to the 2009 diplomatic cable released on WikiLeaks.
“A source familiar with casino operations in the area reported Ibarra was arrested after returning from a meeting with Juan Jose (‘Pepe’) Rojas Cardona, who is widely believed to have orchestrated Rogelio Garza (Cantu)’s assassination,” according to the cable.
Cantu, murdered in June 2009, was known as the “El Diablo” and “Czar of Strip Clubs” and owned a large casino and several strip clubs in the Monterrey area, the cable states.
“Since casino licenses are assigned by the federal government to specific individuals, Rodrigo (sic) Garza’s casino will no longer be able to operate, thus allowing the Rojas brothers to consolidate control of casinos in the Monterrey region,” the cable states.
The Rojas-Cardona brothers had close ties to the Beltran-Leyva drug cartel and to politicians in the National Action Party, according to the cable. Sources told the U.S. Consulate that the brothers illegally donated $5 million to two politicians and gave a helicopter and free advertising to a political candidate.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/22/2514751_p3/corruption-in-mexico-casinos-takes.html
Rojas-Cardona signed a plea agreement on the felony trafficking charge in June of that year, but by September he'd skipped bail and vanished.
In late 1998, federal prosecutors asked a judge to quash the arrest warrant and lift the indictment, a practice that sometimes indicates a defendant has become a federal informant.
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Rojas Cardona, Alberto
Chicago,IL 60611 Information Requested 10/28/11 $30,800 DNC Services Corp (D)
Rojas Cardona, Alberto
Chicago,IL 60611 Tango Latin, Inc 10/28/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)
Rojas Cardona, Alberto
Chicago,IL 60611 Tango Latin, Inc 10/28/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)
Rojas Cardona, Leticia
Brentwood,TN 37027 Self-Employed 12/2/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)
Rojas Cardona, Leticia
Brentwood,TN 37027 Self-Employed 12/2/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)
Rojas Cardona, V Carlos
Chicago,IL 60601 Tango Productions 12/1/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)
Rojas Cardona, V Carlos
Chicago,IL 60601 Tango Productions 12/1/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)
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http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticlePrinterFriendlyNLJ.jsp?id=1202425831872&slreturn=1
Obama’s Chicago friends take a shot at predicting the president-elect's priorities
Lynne Marek / Staff reporterContactAll Articles
The National Law Journal
November 6, 2008
Chicago lawyers who have been longtime friends and supporters of President-Elect Barack Obama expect his legislative priorities will focus on healthcare, immigration and education. Obama is likely to push hard during his first year in office for “comprehensive immigration reform” that will let some 12 million undocumented residents stay in the U.S., said Manny Sanchez, who raised $10 million from the Hispanic business community for his friend's campaign.
(snip)
(no link)
Hispanics flex political power - Dem candidates woo growing demographic
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Sunday, September 2, 2007
Author: Jennifer Hunter, The Chicago Sun-Times
EXCERPT
Loquacious lawyer Manny Sanchez has photos of the famous scattered throughout his office, propped up against the window sill, nailed onto the wall, sitting on his bookshelf — actor John Malkovich, quarterback Joe Montana, Hillary and Bill, and, in a central spot, one of Barack Obama , with Sanchez and his wife, Pat Pulido Sanchez.
Obama is lucky to have Sanchez, 59, as one of his local Hispanic champions. Not only does Sanchez know everyone, he is a superlative fund-raiser and schmoozer, with a network nonpareil. And he has been assembling a nationwide “kitchen Cabinet” of high-profile Hispanics to advise Obama .
Sanchez sensed early that Obama was going places. “I have been a Barack Obama supporter since he first campaigned against Bobby Rush,” he explains during an interview in his office. “If you get in on the ground floor, you might be remembered.”
Sanchez says Obama is “not a traditional Democrat, a member of the Democratic elite. He is an outsider like us, and he brings the potential for a new kind of leadership.”
http://www.sanchezdh.com/announcements/president-obama-gives-founding-partner-a-shout-out
05-Oct-2011
President Obama Gives Founding Partner a Shout-out
President Obama gave Founding Partner, Manny Sanchez and wife Pat a shout-out at the Cinco de Mayo White House Reception. Click on the following link to see video of the Cinco de Mayo event. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHE96OcQHgU
President Obama Announces Members of the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics
http://southchicagoan.blogspot.com/2011/10/seeking-latino-money-to-bolster-obama.html
People with ties to the entertainment industry, or those in other professions who want to be able to say they checked out some Hollywood glamour, will show up for a party at the home of actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas.
AMONG THOSE WHO were supposed to show up was actor Eva Longoria and television hostess Giselle Fernandez, along with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and various attorneys from around the country who head powerful law firms.
Including one attorney from Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago – Manny Sanchez, who founded the law firm of Sanchez, Daniels & Hoffman, LLP.
Looks to me that you’ve found the missing link.
Was over at the Chicago crime thread. At the beginning the comments were general, who’s who. Then we got in more details or who was connected to whom. Side tracked a bit with BlankO fiasco.
BUT
This is red meat. Just WOW. Freeper Researching at it’s very best!!
The last such request came in the final days of the term of Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, and was filed by Gordon Fischer, a lawyer who is a former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party. In his pardon application, Mr. Fischer explained that he knew Pepe Cardona from his days at the University of Iowa. Mr. Fischer declined to comment on Monday, citing attorney-client privilege.
http://bradshawlaw.com/attorneys/detail.cfm?id=49
Gordon R. Fischer
...
Iowa Democratic Party
• Chair, 2002-2004
Wow...
in 2011, Carlos and another Chicago-based brother, Alberto Rojas Cardona, started fundraising for the Obama re-election campaign, despite not having any apparent history of political involvement.
The two Chicago brothers each gave the maximum $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee, their Tennessee-based sister Leticia Rojas Cardona donated $13,000 to the national committee and another relative living in Illinois gave $12,600, The Times reported, citing records. All up, more than $200,000 was raised by the family.
Carlos and Alberto Cardona could not be contacted, but Sarah Westall of Minnesota — the wife of another Cardona brother, Gabriel — told the newspaper that the family raised funds for Obama because they wanted to help the Latino community.
“I understand that it looks real bad,” she said. “But the rest of the family are really good people. Pepe is actually a good person too.”
US diplomatic cables, released by WikiLeaks in 2009, said Pepe Cardona was believed to have illegally delivered $5 million to Mexican politicians in 2006 and organized the assassination of a business rival.
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2008/11/24/story11.html
Brickwell borrowers file Chap. 11
...
Co-debtors: Sarah Westall, Gabriel Rojas-Cardonas
http://igh.cornerkicksystems.com/page/show/6589-board-member-information
(Youth Soccer)
Gabriel Rojas
Treasurer
I sure hope Rush talks about this today.
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