CLEVELAND (AP) — The former top official for a northeast
Ohio telemarketing millionaire charged with violating federal campaign
finance laws testified Wednesday that he knew it was illegal to have the
company reimburse people who had been asked to donate to two prominent
Republican politicians.
Michael Giorgio, 62, testified in U.S.
District Court in Cleveland in the trial of Ben Suarez, the founder of
North Canton’s Suarez Corporation Industries and a longtime donor to
Republican politicians and conservative causes.
"I knew right off the bat what we’re doing wasn’t right," Giorgio said.
Giorgio,
the company’s chief financial officer at the time, said 72-year-old
Suarez asked him in 2011 to collect $100,000 each for the 2012
re-election campaign of U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci and the failed U.S. Senate
bid of Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel. The company then issued
reimbursement checks to the contributors that appeared to be normal
compensation for work.
Suarez’s attorneys said during opening
statements last week that their client reimbursed the contributors but
didn’t know it was illegal and shouldn’t be found guilty.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko questioned Giorgio about the reimbursement
made to him and his wife for the $10,000 they’d contributed to Mandel
and Renacci. The gross amount in check stubs totaled more than $18,000
and included deductions for state and federal taxes. The reimbursements
were paid from an account used for sales commissions, Giorgio said.
"We expensed it out," he testified.
Giorgio
testified that after learning about the FBI’s interest in the
contributions and payments that he and Suarez devised a scheme to
collect the money back from employees. Asked why he got involved in the
scheme, Giorgio said he was trying to cover up his earlier crime.
Giorgio
and Suarez were indicted last year on charges that included conspiracy
to commit federal campaign violations, making corporate contributions,
making contributions in others’ name and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Prosecutors have alleged that Suarez made the donations in the hope
that Renacci and Mandel would help Suarez’s company in an expensive
consumer protection complaint it had been fighting in California.
Originally
indicted along with Suarez, Giorgio pleaded guilty May 19 in a deal
that calls for him to testify against his former boss in exchange for a
reduced prison sentence.
The two politicians wrote letters on
behalf of Suarez Corporation Industries that spokeswomen for the
politicians said is a common constituent service. Mandel and Renacci
have not been accused of wrongdoing and returned the Suarez donations
after learning of an FBI investigation.
Giorgio testified that
Suarez had told him it would be important to get Renacci re-elected so
he could help them with the California litigation, which had cut into
the company’s profits. He also testified that Suarez said the employees’
reimbursement would be "early profit sharing." Giorgio said that in the
27 years he’d worked for the company, no one had ever been paid profit
sharing in advance.
Giorgio is expected to continue his testimony Thursday morning.