Uh, oh.
The original report, in the Florida
Daily Business Review, July 21, 2006And some additional information, seeping out into the public view:
Miami Herald, July, 22, 2006 Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, the Republican frontrunner for governor, is standing by a top South Florida fundraiser who is under federal investigation and has been linked to potential campaign-finance violations while raising money for Gov. Jeb Bush's 2002 race.
For some time, a federal grand jury has been looking at allegations that construction magnate Sergio Pino flew Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose ''Pepe'' Diaz to a weekend fishing junket in Cancún in exchange for his support for a large Doral development in 2004. Both men deny wrongdoing.
Pino's political fundraising prowess is under scrutiny as well. On Friday, the Daily Business Review reported that it possessed bank and corporate records showing that a Pino-controlled firm, Century Prestige II, reimbursed 52 donors after each gave $500 to Bush's 2002 campaign for governor -- a potential violation of the law that says fake donors can't be used to circumvent the $500-per-individual cap on campaign contributions.
Pino, who didn't sign the reimbursement checks, belonged to the elite President Bush fundraising club known as the Rangers. He also sits on a newly reconstituted foundation run by the governor. Friday, he said he had done nothing wrong.
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Two development firms controlled by Pino gave $130,000 to the governor's Foundation for Florida's Future, a just-revived nonprofit think tank that kept some of Bush's campaign team employed between his failed 1994 run and 1998, when he won the first of his two four-year terms. Pino has also helped fund the candidacy of Frank Bolaños against Miami state Sen. Alex Villalobos, who blocked a number of Bush's education plans in the Legislature.
Bush, who is out of the country, didn't respond to e-mails seeking comment. His 2002 campaign and fundraising chiefs didn't return calls.
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Law enforcement officials confirmed to The Miami Herald that the bank records appear to reflect reimbursements to Bush contributors. And although those records have not yet gone before the federal grand jury that has been examining Pino's fishing trip with Diaz, authorities say they recently became aware of the records and are interested in reviewing them as part of a broader federal public corruption investigation.
Pino, through his attorney, has denied he did anything improper during the trip with Commissioner Diaz, who also has denied wrongdoing. Reached Friday, Pino said: ``I don't want to talk about it. I can't. The article is not accurate. It's way off.''
Responded David Lyons, chief editor of the Daily Business Review: ``We stand by our story. We are in possession of the documents described in the story. Mr. Pino was given ample opportunity to respond, but he did not respond to very detailed questions from our reporter.''
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And from today's
Miami Herald:
The federal probe of developer Sergio Pino has spilled into Miami's nastiest state Senate race as voters began receiving attack mailers that mention the investigation and depict rattlesnakes writhing near a Pino-backed candidate.
Candidate Frank Bolaños on Monday decried the flier as ``a classic case of guilt by association.''
His fellow Republican opponent, Sen. Alex Villalobos, knows the feeling, having been morphed into U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton in another mailer.
Both mail pieces, paid for by shadowy third-party political groups, illustrate the high-stakes nature of the local race, which has drawn statewide attention and is closely tied to Gov. Jeb Bush. He made his first statements Monday concerning a Daily Business Review report that a Pino-controlled firm might have laundered campaign money to 52 phony contributors in Bush's 2002 campaign.
''I can assure you that I've done nothing wrong, nor my campaign,'' Bush said, noting he just read of the allegations and intended to ``talk to
.''
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