Dumanis paid debts to Azano case witnesses shortly before trial

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis got a $20,000 contribution from the local Republican Party in June and used it to pay off longstanding re-election campaign debts from 2014 to her political consultant and chief fundraiser.

The payments came a few weeks before the two were listed as potential witnesses at a trial over allegedly illegal contributions to Dumanis’ unsuccessful 2012 mayoral race.

Campaign finance disclosures filed July 31 show Dumanis paid $10,000 to The Gemini Group, the campaign consulting firm owned by her longtime consultant Jennifer Tierney. She also paid $3,000 to KM Strategies, the firm owned by Kelli Maruccia, who was Dumanis’ chief fundraiser in her San Diego mayoral campaign.

The funds came from the San Diego County Republican Party, which on June 13 made the $20,000 contribution.

The transactions came shortly before the scheduled start of the trial of Mexican billionaire Jose Susumo Azano Matsura and three others. Federal prosecutors indicted Azano and the others on charges they schemed to secretly funnel $600,000 in illegal contributions in the 2012 mayor’s race to two campaigns — Dumanis’ losing bid, and eventual winner Bob Filner.

That trial began July 26. Both Tierney and Maruccia appeared on a list of more than 60 people the government said it could call as witnesses during the proceedings. Tierney testified the afternoon of Aug. 3. Maruccia has not been called, though prosecutors had indicated earlier in the trial that she was going to testify before apparently changing their mind.

Neither Maruccia nor Tierney responded to a request to comment this week.

Through a spokeswoman, Dumanis also declined to comment, citing the pending Azano trial. She has been subpoenaed as a defense witness in that case and may testify as early as Tuesday.

Dumanis referred questions to Jason Roe, a political consultant who worked on the 2014 race for Dumanis and is also a consultant for Mayor Kevin Faulconer. He said it was not unusual for consultants to step up efforts to collect lingering debt from previous races, just after an election cycle is over — such as the June primaries, which just ended.

“When I’m in a cycle, after an election is over, I get more aggressive about collecting receivables,” he said. “When these things start to linger on and on, it gets uncomfortable.”

He said that there was “nothing that stood out about the timing” of the payments, and that they may have been spurred by the consultants.

“It’s the time you go back and look at your books and say, you need to settle up,” Roe said.

It’s unclear if Dumanis asked the county Republican Party for the contribution. Party chairman Tony Krvaric said the donation amount was not unusual.

“Bonnie has been a great friend of our party, so when we were in a position to help after taking stock after the primary, we did,” he said in an email response to questions about the contribution. He added the donations normally have been done during a campaign, and could not recall if contributions to settle debt had been made in the past.

Campaign finance records show that Dumanis owed Tierney and Maruccia $50,000 and $15,000, respectively, at the end of 2014. Dumanis paid down some of the debt in 2015, and by year’s end owed Maruccia $3,251 and Tierney $16,000.

In the first half of this year, Dumanis reported the single $20,000 contribution from the local GOP.

With those funds, the records show, she made the payments to Tierney and Maruccia. She also paid Steve Walker, her longtime communications director and spokesman at the DAs office, $3,000 to settle up with him. He is listed as a campaign consultant for the re-election race.

After the latest round of payments, Dumanis still reported owing Tierney $6,000.

Azano is charged with supporting Dumanis with a $100,000 contribution to an independent committee he set up, and hiding the source of the donation by routing it through a shell corporation based in the U.S. He also arranged for almost $15,000 in straw donors contributions to her campaigns — arranging for individuals to contribute the maximum amount, then reimbursing them immediately with his own cash.

He’s also accused of secretly paying for the services of campaign consultant Ravneet Singh, whose firm ElectionMall worked on the web page and other social media campaigns for Dumanis for several months in 2012.

Foreign nationals who have no legal status in the U.S, such as a green card are prohibited from contributing to domestic elections. Dumanis said she was unaware of any assistance Azano gave, and has given varying accounts of her interactions with him.

She said initially she only met him once at a lunch at his Coronado mansion. In the two years since the indictments, she’s also been shown to have written his son Edward — also a defendant — a letter of recommendation to the University of San Diego and participated in a conference call with Azano and Singh on Christmas Day 2011.

Tierney testified at the trial as a witness for federal prosecutors. Much of her testimony dealt with the campaign interactions with Singh.

Tierney testified that she contacted Singh in December 2011, just after Dumanis had a conference call with Azano, Singh and Ernie Encinas, Azano’s security chief and Dumanis supporter who helped route Azano’s money to campaigns, according to the government’s case.

Tierney testified that the cash-strapped campaign had little money to spend on Singh’s services. After several weeks of discussions, the final offer was to provide services for $495 per month. That was still too much, she said, and the two never reached a formal agreement.

Instead Tierney said she spoke to Singh and said he could volunteer his time to the campaign. Singh’s company worked several months redesigning websites, creating online ads and doing other tasks, according to evidence displayed at the trial.

Tierney testified that her understanding with Singh is that he — and anyone from his Washington, D.C.-based company — would would be working as volunteers only. The company never submitted an invoice to the campaign. But another campaign official, Ron Nehring, testified that he never believed that Singh or his employees were volunteers, but would be paid by the campaign.

Dumanis won re-election to a fourth term as District Attorney in June 2014, defeating challenger Bob Brewer with 55 percent of the vote in the primary. Her win came just weeks after Azano was arrested and charged in the illegal campaign finance scheme.