Union Official Charged With Illegal Clinton Donations Indicted for Mail Fraud

Former Broward Teachers Union president allegedly steered illegal contributions to Clinton’s 2008 campaign

Federal authorities indicted the former president of a Florida teachers’ union on fraud charges on Thursday, even as he faces additional charges in his home state over allegedly illegal campaign contributions to Hillary Clinton.

The Justice Department charged former Broward Teachers Union (BTU) president Patrick Santeramo with two counts of mail fraud for his alleged role in embezzling more than $35,000 in payments from a local school district.

“It is alleged that after the BTU received the $80,000 payment from the School Board of Broward County, Santeramo authorized payments from the [union’s] Accountability Program account for himself and at least one other employee of the BTU to which they were not entitled,” DOJ said in apress release announcing the indictment.

Those funds were supposed to go toward training programs and leave time for teachers working on “accountability projects,” DOJ said. Instead, Santeramo pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in payments from Broward schools.

As he faces those charges, Santeramo is also awaiting trial in Broward County on 20 criminal counts, including racketeering, grand theft, fraud, money laundering, and charges involving illegal campaign contributions.

The latter involves alleged schemes to illegally direct tens of thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, among other political efforts.

According to Florida authorities, Santeramo approached BTU colleagues beginning in 2007 asking them and their family members to contribute to Clinton’s campaign and that of then-Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink.

“Fraudulent reimbursements were used to conceal and launder these contributions by disguising them in the BTU books and records using false account classification designations such as: ‘miscellaneous expense, building expense, organizing, staff training, new education program, office supplies, lobbying, communications, negotiation and bargaining, other committees, steward training and special events,’” according to the criminal complaint against Santeramo.

Via: WFB

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More Companies That Have Donated to Planned Parenthood

The Daily Signal obtained the 2013-2014 annual report for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England—an affiliate of the national organization that operates in Connecticut and Rhode Island—which lists companies who have contributed to the organization.

Planned Parenthood is in the midst of a controversy following the release of seven videos by the Center for Medical Progress showing senior executives of the organization discussing the sale of fetal organs at affiliates of the nation’s largest abortion provider. Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing.

Profiting from the sale of fetal organs is a federal felony in the United States.

Planned Parenthood of Southern New England lists the following corporations as having donated to them in fiscal year 2014:

PACESETTER ($10,000 – 24,999)

Goldman Sachs Gives

Pfizer Foundation

GROUNDBREAKER ($5,000 – 9,999)

General Electric United Way Giving Campaign

HMSDesign

Pfizer Foundation

Pfizer United Way Campaign

LEADER ($2,500 – 4,999)

Aetna Foundation

Agniel Commodities, LLC

Brenner, Saltzman & Wallman, LLP

Chace Ruttenberg & Freedman, LLP

GE Foundation

Goodcopy Printing & Graphics

McKesson Medical Surgical

Don and Helene Hirschfeld Truist, Inc.

General Electric Co.

UPS

Johnson&Johnson

Cigna

Women’s Health USA

Working Assets

ADVOCATE ($1,000 – 2,499)

Bank of America United Way Campaign

Bristol-Myers Squibb Employee Giving Program

Coach Matching Gift Program

The Daily Signal reached out to each company to ask about the donation. The Tug Hollow Corporation and High End Landscape LLC could not be reached for comment.

A representative for UPS said an “internal review” didn’t show Planned Parenthood as an organization that had received a grant from them.

A spokeswoman for Chace Ruttenberg & Freedman, LLP denied that the firm had donated to Planned Parenthood.

According to a representative for Agniel Commodities, LLC, “the ownership” of the company holds a “favorable” view of the work of Planned Parenthood.

A spokesman for Goodcopy told The Daily Signal that the company contributes to all the non-profits that they have as clients and that Planned Parenthood “does a good service” to the community.

Asked if he would continue his relationship with Planned Parenthood, he said, “I don’t get involved in politics.”

Working Assets and HMSDesign did not return The Daily Signal’s request for comment, but both highlight their donations to Planned Parenthood on their websites.

Via: Daily Signal

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EXCLUSIVE–DR. BEN CARSON’S FUNDRAISING NUMBERS: MORE THAN $5.2 MILLION SINCE EARLY MARCH

Dr. Ben Carson’s presidential campaign shared his early fundraising numbers exclusively with Breitbart News, proving that he—like many other 2016 conservative presidential candidates—will be a force to be reckoned with on the campaign trail.

The numbers provided to Breitbart News in the middle of last week and published here for the first time, show that Carson has raised at least $5.2 million since his launch back in early May. Spokesman Doug Watts told Breitbart News that the $5.2 million since March 3, when Carson launched his exploratory committee, came “predominantly in small donations,” with $52 being the average.

Carson’s campaign is on the brink of surpassing 100,000 total donors—meaning that many people have given him money for his presidential campaign run—since March 3, as well. Since April 1—this fundraising quarter’s beginning—Carson’s team has raised $3 million. From March 3 until now, Carson’s team has pulled in $1.6 million in direct mail and about $600,000 over phones.

Since Carson launched his official presidential campaign on May 4 in Detroit, his team tells Breitbart News he’s raised $1.8 million in online fundraising. And over the past 18 months, all of Carson’s both official and unofficial committees—which include Carson America Exploratory, RBR, and the leadership PAC USA First—have pulled in $22 million.

Carson’s team is waiting for about a million pieces of mail that are currently out in stream right now to come back in, as well, meaning that the already-proven-prolific fundraiser will be pulling in quite a bit more cash very soon.

Via: Breitbart

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High NPR Star Salaries Curb the Appeal of Small-Dollar Donations

The next time a public-radio station goes into pledge-drive mode and begs listeners to chip in $100 for those snazzy premiums like the Nina Totin'-Bag, it would be wonderful if, in the spirit of balance and fairness, they would read off some salary numbers for NPR stars. Do people on modest incomes really want to chip in $25 to make sure an anchor can take home $375,000?

Instead, pledge-drive announcers often plead that stations need donations to pay for program fees, not anchor salaries. Blogger and news-app developer Andy Boyle pored over a few IRS 990 forms and revealed some of the highest-paid public radio poobahs:

– Steve Inskeep, co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition.” 2009-2010: $361, 093, base salary of $319,370. 2010-2011: $373,097, base salary of $334,560.

– Renee Montagne, co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition.” 2009-2010: $357,037, base salary of $328,117. 2010-2011: $369,552, base salary of  $321,919.

– Michele Norris, former co-host of “All Things Considered.” 2009-2010: $298,360, base salary of $264,9009. No 2010-2011 numbers listed.

–  Robert Siegel, cohost of “All Things Considered.” 2009-2010: $362,687, with a base salary of $309,479. 2010-2011: $375,652, with a base salary of $321,860.

– Terry Gross, host of WHYY’s “Fresh Air,” broadcast on hundreds of NPR affiliates. 2009-2010: $254,933, base salary of $233,483. 2010-2011: $256,611, base salary of $233,483.

He also had numbers for the popular public-radio show "This American Life," heard on many NPR stations:

-- Ira Glass, host and producer of “This American Life.” 2009-2010: $171,224, base salary of $127,871. 2010-2011: $170,190, base salary of $148,782.

– Alex Blumberg, producer of “This American Life,” cohost of the Planet Money podcast. 2009-2010: $154,801, base salary of $123,220. 2010-2011: $201,734, base salary of $134,400.

– Julie Snyder, senior producer of “This American Life.” 2009-2010: Not listed. 2010-2011: $156,153, base salary of $146,175.

Boyle added this point on the anchor of the public-radio show Marketplace: "Couldn’t find Kai Ryssdal’s salary in updated 990s for American Public Media."

Via: Newsbusters

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MONSTER HAUL: ROMNEY RAKES IN $112M IN FIRST 17 DAYS OF OCTOBER

Rising enthusiasm for Mitt Romney’s surging presidential candidacy has driven Americans to the donation box: Romney’s campaign raised a whopping $112 million in 17 days of October, according to the Republican National Committee. Much of that giving was obviously driven by Romney’s stellar performance in the first debate.

Romney needed a good showing after incumbent President Barack Obama defeated him in fundraising for September, $181 million to $170 million. The Romney campaign has approximately $169 million to spend over the final two weeks of this campaign. Approximately $38 million of the money raised in October came in donations of $250 or under, suggesting burgeoning grassroots appeal for Romney.

Via: Breitbart

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Team Obama raises $90 million in the first half of October

Earlier today, Team Romney (including Romney for President, Romney Victory, and the Republican National Committee) announced that, between October 1st and 17th, they raised a combined total of over $111 million, and still have about $169 million cash on hand — a pretty impressive haul no doubt aided by the general debate-watching public finally getting to meet Mitt Romney without all of the added negative noise from the Obama campaign.

This evening, Team Obama revealed via Twitter their own combined-total fundraising numbers for the first seventeen days of the month:

Barack Obama

• ✔

@BarackObama

In the first 17 days of October, 1,251,291 people came together to raise $90,500,000 for the campaign and combined committees.

25 Oct 12

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• Retweet
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In the entire month of September, Team Obama outraised Team Romney with $181 million to their $170 million, but it looks like the debate season may’ve helped fuel a role-reversal from that trend. Either way, both campaign’s days of chic fundraisers are over and the donations are going to start petering out, and both sides will be looking to spend most of the money in their war chests in the next eleven-ish days. Ohioans — I do not envy you.

Via: Hot Air

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