Omar Navarro will get 4 yr in jail for embezzlement – NBC Los Angeles
A former candidate in earlier California congressional races was sentenced to federal jail for embezzling almost $250,000 from his political marketing campaign and spending the cash on private bills, together with journeys to Las Vegas.
Omar Navarro, who problem Rep. Maxine Waters for California’s forty third Congressional District from 2016 and 22, was sentenced to 48 months in federal jail after he pleaded responsible to 1 rely of wire fraud final June.
The U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) has mentioned after elevating hundreds of thousands of {dollars} through the 4 election cycles, the 37-year-old defrauded his marketing campaign committee by pocketing among the cash.
Though he knew federal legislation strictly prohibits the non-public use of marketing campaign funds, Navarro funneled marketing campaign money to himself between July 2017 and February 2021, the DOJ mentioned.
“As a congressional candidate, Navarro knew and understood that marketing campaign funds raised by him and others for his marketing campaign have been restricted to supporting his election efforts and couldn’t be used for his personal private use or enjoyment,” the Justice Division mentioned in a press release.
Amongst $1 million he had raised for his congressional marketing campaign, Navarro used among the cash for private use and conspired together with his mom to embezzle between 2018 and 2020, in line with the Justice Division.
In some instances, Navarro transferred marketing campaign checks to his mom, Dora Asghari, and a pal, Zacharias Diamantides-Abel, mendacity that the funds have been for marketing campaign work. Asghari and Abel then despatched that cash again to Navarro after taking their cut-back, the DOJ mentioned.
Different private bills that the marketing campaign funds paid for included journeys to Las Vegas, Nintendo Change video video games, a personal investigator and private legal protection legal professionals.
Navarro stole $268,932 in complete from his marketing campaign funds with out reporting to Federal Election Fee, the DOJ mentioned.
Navarro’s mom and pals each pleaded responsible to their particular person expenses.
A restitution listening to for Navarro shall be scheduled later, the DOJ added.
