California politicians convicted of a crime will no longer be able to use campaign funds to cover legal expenses.

On Sept. 26, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2803 into law, which closes a campaign finance loophole that former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu used last year to pay his criminal defense attorney amid an FBI political corruption probe.

According to campaign finance documents, Sidhu made a $300,000 payment to attorney Paul Meyer in 2022 from funds raised for his reelection.

Before that, he resigned as mayor a week after an FBI affidavit accused him of bribery, fraud, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

Assemblyman Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim), who had publicly called on Sidhu to step down when he served on Anaheim City Council alongside him, introduced the bill in February.

“What Sidhu did was unacceptable and unethical considering the crimes that he was being charged with,” Valencia said. “I don’t think supporters of candidates intended for their money to go towards defending politicians against criminal charges.”

Sidhu eventually pleaded guilty to four felonies, including charges connected to the attempted sale of Angel Stadium, at the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana last September.

“Yes, I’m guilty,” Sidhu said when he entered his plea. “I did lie to the FBI.”

But the former Anaheim mayor is not the sole politician in the state to have exploited the campaign finance loophole.

Former state Sen. Leland Yee paid his legal team $128,000 from campaign committee funds for his secretary of state bid before pleading guilty to racketeering in 2015.

Sean McMorris, ethics program manager for Common Cause, noted the new law as one that is narrowly tailored but important in strengthening the Political Reform Act that was first enacted 50 years ago.

“There are bad actors,” he said. “If you do want to deter them and make ethics laws more important, one way to do that is not allow them to use campaign funds to pay off legal fees or penalties. This is good in that it’s expanding that for felonies as well as bribery.”

Under the new law, if politicians are convicted of a felony among other select crimes, they will be required to pay back donors for any funds diverted to legal expenses.

The law doesn’t cover legal defense funds, which politicians are legally allowed to open and raise money for without contribution limits.

Former state Sen. Ron Calderon and former state Sen. Roderick Wright raised funds through such committees.

“That’s still a loophole,” McMorris said.

The bill, which was co-sponsored by state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) and Assemblyman Phil Chen (R-Yorba Linda), marks another anti-corruption effort for Valencia, who chairs an Assembly accountability and oversight subcommittee.

He previously ordered a state audit of contracts between Visit Anaheim and the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce after an independent corruption report alleged the two organizations engaged in a grafting scheme involving $1.5 million in COVID-19 relief funds.

Newsom also last month signed into law AB 2946, a Valencia-backed bill that requires a majority vote by the Orange County Board of Supervisors before discretionary funds can be awarded.

The legislation comes in the wake of a political corruption scandal involving $13 million in public funds directed by Supervisor Andrew Do to Viet Society America, which a county lawsuit now alleges was embezzled by the nonprofit that also employed Do’s daughter.

In closing the loophole exploited by Sidhu, Valencia hopes to protect the intent behind campaign contributions.

“It’s another step in ensuring good government, transparency and ethics in public service,” he said of the new law. “It doesn’t solve some of the gaps still kept in the system, but it’s a step closer for sure.”

GOLDEN, Colo., Oct. 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SHF Holdings, Inc., d/b/a/ Safe Harbor Financial (“Safe Harbor” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: SHFS), a leader in facilitating financial services and credit facilities to the regulated cannabis industry, announced today that its management team will participate in the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference being held October 8-9, 2024, in Chicago.

Sundie Seefried, Safe Harbor’s Chief Executive Officer and President, will participate in a panel discussion titled “Cannabis Cash Flow: The Fed’s Impact on Opportunities and Challenges in Macro-Economic Trends” on Tuesday, October 8, 2024 at 10:10 a.m. Central Time.

The Company will host one-on-one investor meetings throughout the conference. For more information or to schedule a meeting, please contact SafeHarbor@kcsa.com.

About Safe Harbor
Safe Harbor is among the first service providers to offer compliance, monitoring and validation services to financial institutions, providing traditional banking services to cannabis, hemp, CBD, and ancillary operators, making communities safer, driving growth in local economies, and fostering long-term partnerships. Safe Harbor, through its financial institution clients, implements high standards of accountability, transparency, monitoring, reporting and risk mitigation measures while meeting Bank Secrecy Act obligations in line with FinCEN guidance on cannabis-related businesses. Over the past eight years, Safe Harbor has facilitated more than $23 billion in deposit transactions for businesses with operations spanning over 41 states and US territories with regulated cannabis markets. For more information, visit www.shfinancial.org.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to trends in the cannabis industry, including proposed changes in U.S and state laws, rules, regulations and guidance relating to Safe Harbor’s services; Safe Harbor’s growth prospects and Safe Harbor’s market size; Safe Harbor’s projected financial and operational performance, including relative to its competitors and historical performance; new product and service offerings Safe Harbor may introduce in the future; the impact volatility in the capital markets, which may adversely affect the price of the Company’s securities; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Safe Harbor; other statements regarding Safe Harbor’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future; and the other risk factors discussed in Safe Harbor’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “outlook,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would,” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond the control of Safe Harbor), and other assumptions, that may cause the actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

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Contact Information
Safe Harbor Media
Nick Callaio, Marketing Manager
720.951.0619
Nick@SHFinancial.org

Safe Harbor Investor Relations
ir@SHFinancial.org

KCSA Strategic Communications
Phil Carlson
safeharbor@kcsa.com

Former Florida Sen. Frank Artiles, an ex-Marine who more recently has shaped political campaigns as a lobbyist and consultant, was found guilty Monday of campaign finance and voter registration violations in a trial that showed the underbelly of Florida politics.

It took a Miami-Dade jury just over six hours to reach a unanimous verdict in a case built around political operatives and a “ghost candidate” who likely tipped a tight election. Sparked by a scheme to help Senate Republicans flip a seat in 2020, the two-week trial engrossed Florida’s political establishment from Miami to Tallahassee.

Artiles and his attorneys stood stoic as the verdict was read, their hands clasped in front of them, family members and friends standing along rows of benches behind. The former senator was fingerprinted but not handcuffed — his family surrounding him blocking the view — before being released by Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Miguel M. de la O.

Artiles wouldn’t comment as the group made its way out of the courtroom. Defense attorney Frank Quintero thanked the jurors, then promised an appeal. As he addressed the media, Quintero said he found it helpful that jurors listed all the instances they considered excessive contributions from Artiles to Alexis Rodriguez, an independent candidate whose only purpose in the race was to hurt the Democratic incumbent.

“They were actually business transactions that he [Rodriguez] screwed Mr. Artiles for,” said Quintero. “It’s going to be a long fight. This fight is not over.”

Artiles, 51, married with two daughters, was found guilty of excessive campaign contributions, conspiracy to commit excessive contributions and falsely swearing an oath, all felonies that could carry five-year sentences. He was cleared of a fourth charge, aiding a false registration.

His convictions could land him in prison for as many as 15 years, though that long a term is unlikely.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle applauded the jury for understanding the case’s complexities and realizing that Artiles was the “mastermind” of the “ghost candidate scandal.”

“These felony convictions show that the jurors agreed that we can not tolerate the violation of our laws to gain a political advantage,” she said in a prepared statement.

Judge de la O is expected to sentence Artiles some time after Oct. 21.

READ MORE: Lobbyist said she heard Artiles brag about election win.

During the two-week trial, it was explained how a long-time Republican party operative reached out to Artiles for help in the 2020 race for the District 37 Senate seat, which at the time covered a large swath of Miami-Dade County from Miami Beach south and through Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay.

Lead prosecutor Tim VanderGiesen explained to jurors how the former state senator — after working out a contract agreement with the owner of a Gainesville-area Republican political research and marketing firm — engineered a plan to run and promote a machine parts salesman as a third-party candidate in the race in order to siphon votes from the Democratic front-runner.

The plan worked.

Ileana Garcia, a former Spanish radio host and founder of Latinas for Trump, defeated Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez by a mere 32 votes after a recount. VanderGiesen told jurors that Alexis Rodriguez — the ghost candidate running as an independent — was promised $50,000 by Artiles. In a race decided by less than three-dozen votes after a runoff, more than 6,000 residents voted for Alexis Rodriguez.

The payoffs came in different forms, prosecutors said. Besides four payments totaling $22,000 in cash, Alexis Rodriguez was given another $22,000 through tuition payments for his daughter, money alleged to be going to the purchase of a truck for Artiles’ daughter and reimbursements. In total, the state said Alexis Rodriguez collected $44,708.03 in cash and gifts.

Artiles was paid $90,000 to help win Miami races by Data Targeting founder Patrick Bainter, a top consultant for Florida’s Senate Republicans. Bainter placed another $100,000 in a political action committee associated with Artiles.

READ MORE: ‘Knock yourself out.’ Top Florida GOP operative blessed Artiles’ ‘ghost candidate’ pitch

SENATE SEAT UNRAVELED QUICKLY

Artiles served three terms in the Florida House before winning a Senate seat in 2016. His senate term unraveled quickly. He resigned less than a year after being elected and after using racial slurs and uttering profanities while talking to a group of Black elected leaders in Tallahassee.

Then, just over a year after Garcia’s unexpected 2020 victory, Artiles was charged with the four felonies. Alexis Rodriguez was charged with the same four felonies, but avoided conviction in exchange for his testimony against Artiles.

During closing arguments Monday morning, defense attorney Jose Quiñon told jurors the plot to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez began with the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the main campaign vehicle for Florida’s Senate Republicans. The committee contacted Bainter, and Bainter, looking for information on the ground in Miami, reached out to some folks he knew in West Palm Beach. They recommended Artiles.

Aritles, who knew Alexis Rodriguez through a family member, promised him he would be coached and wouldn’t have to campaign.

Under Florida law, none of that is illegal. Directly giving a candidate more than $1,000, however, is.

And Monday, on the verdict form, jurors wrote out exactly which acts they believe Artiles committed that were illegal. They listed six instances when the lobbyist gave the candidate money or gifts totaling $26,812.92. Among the payments: $2,000 to cover the registration fee to become a candidate, $6,784.39 to cover tuition for the candidate’s daughter’s private high school, a $2,400 rent payment and $9,000 from Artiles’ brother-in-law.

During the trial, Alexis Rodriguez said the only reason he agreed to change his party affiliation and run in the race was because he was broke and just divorced. He told jurors he was ashamed and said the only reason he agreed to the plan was because he needed money.

Garcia, the unexpected victor, has always been controversial. She once said she believed people could outgrow being gay, but later apologized. She also authored a bill to spend $5 million on former President Donald Trump’s legal bills. The bill didn’t pass. Jose Javier Rodriguez now works as an assistant secretary for the Labor Department in Washington D.C.