California man who raised cash for Dem candidates, 'unite immigrant families' kept money for himself, feds allege

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-man-who-raised-cash-for-dem-
candidates-progressive-causes-kept-money-for-himself-feds-allege

A California man set up bogus fundraising websites for prominent
Democratic candidates and causes, scamming donors out of more than
$250,000, federal prosecutors in New York alleged Tuesday.

John Pierre Dupont, 80, is accused by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the
Southern District of New York of creating at least three fake political
action committees, or "scam PACs," and at least 15 websites purporting to
raise money for various Democratic candidates. Prosecutors say 10 of those
websites were presented as supporting Democratic Senate candidates in last
year's midterm elections; the candidates included Beto O'Rourke, Joe
Manchin, Claire McCaskill, Bill Nelson, Heidi Heitkamp and Kyrsten Sinema
Another claimed to be raising money for Florida gubernatorial candidate
Andrew Gillum, while still another was created in 2015 and supported
Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, officials said.

According to an affidavit filed Tuesday, Dupont -- he also went by the
name John Gary Rinaldo before changing it in 2012 -- registered four
separate domain names for fundraising websites alleged to be supporting
Joe Biden's potential 2020 presidential candidacy, while a fifth backed
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and a sixth supported a potential
candidacy by former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. The affidavit noted that
those websites "do not yet appear to have received and processed
donations."

Another website set up by Dupont purportedly solicited donations for 10
Democratic U.S. Senate candidates.
Another website set up by Dupont purportedly solicited donations for 10
Democratic U.S. Senate candidates. (Screenshot)

One more website, ImmigrantChildrenReunited.org, claimed to be collecting
money to reunite undocumented immigrant children with their parents, from
whom they'd been separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Our volunteer attorneys, doctors, nurses and social workers are working
day and night to liberate these children," read a message on the now-
defunct website, which claimed that donations would be used to pay the
volunteers' costs as well as "transportation to unite immigrant families."

In fact, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement, the PAC
associated with the Immigrant Children Reunited website "had no
volunteers, and dedicated no funds to paying for doctors, social workers
or any other professionals, advocacy or political operations."

"Thousands of donors believed their hard-earned money was being used to
support the causes described in solicitations, but in reality, the scam
PACs had no operations beyond the fundraising itself, and no funds were
used to support candidates," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said. "My
office will continue to ensure that fraudulent fundraising does not pay –
indeed, will result in criminal prosecution – by rooting out scam PACs
wherever we find them.”

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Prosecutors say Dupont collected more than 1,000 donations to the various
faked PACs and campaign websites, using the money to pay for his rent,
parking tickets and car insurance while failing to report the donations to
the Federal Election Commission. In February 2016, Dupont allegedly used
$25,300 he collected from the fake Bernie Sanders fundraising website to
buy a Mercedes-Benz sedan.

Dupont was arrested Tuesday and charged with wire fraud and aggravated
identity theft. He faces up to 22 years in prison.

He was due to appear in federal court in Arizona Tuesday afternoon.



--
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Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
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Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.

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