politicker | Dinesh D’Souza, a controversial political commentator, author and
former president of King’s College, was indicted today by a grand jury
for alleged campaign finance fraud, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office
announced this evening.
According to the office, Mr. D’Souza, 52, is charged “with violating
the federal campaign finance laws by making illegal contributions to a
United States Senate campaign in the names of others and causing false
statements to be made to the Federal Election Commission in connection
with those contributions.”
According to a complaint, Mr. D’Souza contributed $20,000 to a New
York Senate candidate’s campaign—five times the legal limit—by using
straw donors, whom he later reimbursed.
FEC campaign finance records
show Mr. D’Souza made two $2,500 contributions to long-shot Republican
New York U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long in March 2012—the maximum
allowed. Mr. D’Souza’s wife at the time, Dixie D’Souza, also gave $5,000
that March, records show. Ms. Long was handily defeated in the general
election by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.
The candidate in question was unaware of Mr. D’Souza’s allegedly illicit activities, the indictment says.
The indictment is just the latest by Mr. Bharara, who has gone after
political corruption aggressively in recent months. “As we have long
said, this office and the F.B.I. take a zero-tolerance approach to
corruption of the electoral process. If, as alleged, the defendant
directed others to make contributions to a Senate campaign and
reimbursed them, that is a serious violation of federal campaign finance
laws,” he said.
