WASHINGTON DC (TIP): Political consultant Ravneet Singh, former CEO of ElectionMall Technologies, was sentenced Aug 31 to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for his role in funneling more than $600,000 in illegal foreign campaign contributions from Mexican citizen Jose Susumo Azano Matsura to candidates in the 2012 San Diego mayoral election.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael M. Anello ordered the defendant to report to prison on October 12, 2017, to begin serving his sentence.

In September 2016, after six weeks of trial and five days of deliberations, a federal jury in San Diego returned guilty verdicts against Singh, Azano and Azano’s son, Edward Susumo, who were convicted of felony counts associated with a series of illegal campaign contributions by Azano to the campaigns of Bonnie Dumanis and Bob Filner.

“American elections are not for sale,” said Executive U.S. Attorney Blair Perez. “We will not allow our sacred electoral process to be compromised. This prison sentence underscores an important message: Anyone who tries to manipulate the American electorate will pay a high price.”

According to evidence presented at trial, Azano, Singh, and others conspired to inject hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and in-kind consulting services to the Bonnie Dumanis and Bob Filner campaigns, despite the fact that Azano’s foreign national status made such contributions illegal. To conceal his connection to these contributions, Azano arranged with his son Edward Hester and others to funnel this illegal foreign money through corporate and third person “straw donor” contributions. The conspirators, moreover, arranged for at least $267,000 worth of Singh’s in-kind consulting services to be secretly funneled to the campaigns.

In return for his political contributions, Azano sought to buy political influence. For example, he wanted support for his vision of Miami West – a San Diego waterfront development project with a yacht marina, a branded five-star hotel, and luxury bayside condominiums that promised Azano millions in profit. In other instances, Azano wanted access, like the ability to call on influential political figures or obtain letters of reference to secure his son’s admission to the University of San Diego.

Ultimately, with Azano’s help, Filner won the election, though he was forced to resign shortly thereafter.

For his part, Singh used his specialized skills and knowledge to facilitate the crimes. Evidence at trial demonstrated that Singh used code names for the Dumanis and Filner work that Azano paid for but never for any other domestic candidate for office; harshly reprimanded employees for using those code names in emails; and on one particularly candid occasion, referenced the “legal ramifications” of discussing these topics. Singh further concealed the payments from Azano by structuring the wires from a Mexican company, Broadlink, controlled by Azano, which had nothing to do with electoral politics, to company Singh controlled, not Election Mall, but eSolutions, which primarily developed software from India.