CREW Files Complaint Against Cuban Lobbying Group

The Miami Herald reported that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics In Washington (CREW) filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals, a foreign national, and Mauricio Claver-Carone, Gus Machado, Cuba Democracy Advocates, Inc. and the US-Cuba Democracy PAC for violations of federal campaign finance law. CREW claims that the Cuban-American lobbying organization that favors tougher sanctions against Cuba broke FEC regulations by having illegal links to the nonprofit group Cuba Democracy Advocates Inc. Leopoldo Fernández Pujals founded two nonprofit U.S. organizations in 2000 to oppose the communist government, using some of the proceeds of his $366 million sale of Spanish fast-food chain Telepizza in 1999, according to the FEC complaint. Those two organizations eventually became Cuba Democracy Advocates, and Fernández appointed Mauricio Claver-Carone as director and Miami-Dade car dealer Gus Machado as treasurer. Machado then went on to create the PAC and Claver-Carone became its Washington director. The complaint and related documents from CREW can be found here.
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