Campaign finance fraud accusations haunt Spano, congressional office

Source: Politco

By MARC CAPUTO 12/10/2018 05:01 AM EST Updated 12/10/2018 07:15 AM EST

MIAMI — U.S. Rep.-elect Ross Spano is struggling to hire office staff as he relies on a controversial adviser: one of the friends at the center of a campaign finance scandal that is rocking the Florida Republican.

Spano, an attorney and outgoing state legislator with past financial troubles, recently admitted in a letter to the Federal Election Commission that he might have committed a campaign finance “violation” in failing for two months to disclose $180,000 he accepted from two friends. Spano, who personally loaned his campaign $174,500, says the funds he received were loans.

But if the FEC deems the “loans” to be campaign contributions, they would exceed legal donation limits of $2,700 per cycle, per contributor. And experts say it could constitute a criminal violation by Spano and, potentially, the two people who gave his campaign the money — Cary Carreno and Karen Hunt.

Of the two donors, Carreno loaned the most — $110,000 — and has the closest relationship with Spano. Carreno has been a friend of Spano since sixth grade, a onetime legal client of Spano’s, a longtime Spano contributor and a donor to a super PAC helping Spano. Since the election, Carreno has acted as a sort of employment agent for the congressman-elect; he told the campaign’s treasurer she was fired, and is now helping interview prospective job hires, even as opponents from both sides of the aisle have called for a criminal investigation of Spano.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/12/10/campaign-finance-fraud-accusations-haunt-spano-congressional-office-734974