Julian Castro Investigated for Accepting Illegal Campaign Money along with 8 other San Antonio Texas Democrats

In an official response to nine Sworn Complaints, the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) has notified most members of the San Antonio City Council they are being investigated for multiple campaign finance violations.

Mayor Julian Castro, Council members Cris Medina and Diego Bernal had the most alleged violations at over 200 each.

The Sworn Complaints allege 41 instances of accepting donations from corporations. Corporate donations are, if done knowingly, a 3rd degree felony offense. All nine complaints alleged these offenses. Well known names include MacDonalds, Inc., Holiday Inns, Inc. and Texas Associaton of Realtors.

The Texas Ethics Advisory Board (TEAB) reports that more than fifteen more Sworn Complaints will be initiated on the corporations who contributed to the council members campaigns. Pending the results of the TEC investigations, the TEAB will refer any felonies to Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed.

Another frequent complaint was the diversion of campaign funds to personal use. If confirmed, this would make Mayor Castro and Council members Cris Medina and Diego Bernal and others civilly liable to the State of Texas including court costs.

Other frequent alleged violations of State law included failure to report out of state travel, filing late reports and having serious contribution balance discrepancies – unaccounted for money.

Mr. Jim Doyle, Mr Bill Berntsen, Mr. Alvin Schleiske and Mr. Tom Curry, well-known Woodlands TEA party supporters and community activists, filed the complaints after noticing the alleged campaign finance violations.
The Mayor and the eight council members will have to answer to the allegations with an explanation or corrected reports or both by April 15.

They signed their campaign finance reports under the penalty of perjury, and bear the responsibility for checking their reports accuracy and fully disclosing the information required by state law.

Making a false, material, perjurious statement during or in connection with an official Texas Ethics Commission proceeding constitutes aggravated perjury, a felony of the third degree.

Doyle, Berntsen, Schleiske, Curry and the TEAB are members of a large group of citizen-taxpayers in suburban Houston and surrounding counties who conduct statewide audits of progressive candidates, officeholders and political action committees who have long been contributing to the runaway growth of government and the loss of constitutional authority. In this case, the approval by the San Antonio City Council of spousal benefits for homosexual couples brought scrutiny by the above mentioned complainants.

Jim Doyle: 936-718-2513 936-271-0099
Bill Berntsen: 832-326-8055
Tom Curry: 281-728-0511