POLITICAL FUNDRAISER DAVID ROSEN INDICTED FOR CAUSING FALSE FILINGS WITH FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray announced today the unsealing of a four-count indictment charging David Rosen, the former National Finance Director for a candidate for United States Senate in the 2000 campaign, with causing false campaign finance reports to be filed with the Federal Election Commission, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1001 and 2.

The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in the Central District of California and unsealed today. The indictment alleges that Rosen, an experienced professional political fundraiser, was responsible for all fundraising, planning and costs for an Aug. 12, 2000 fundraising event in Los Angeles, California for the purpose of raising money for a joint fundraising committee which benefited, in part, the campaign of Rosen’s Senate candidate.

While the event is alleged to have cost over $1.2 million, paid for with over $1.1 million of “in-kind” contributions, the indictment charges that Rosen reported the in-kind contributions to be only around $400,000, knowing this figure to be false. The indictment charges that Rosen provided some documents to the joint fundraising committee’s FEC compliance officer, but withheld true costs that were known to him and provided false documents to substantiate the lower figure. In one instance, Rosen is charged with obtaining and delivering to the committee a fraudulent invoice stating that the cost of the concert portion of the event was $200,000, when he knew that the figure had no basis in fact. The concert portion of the event itself cost over $600,000.

The Senate campaign committee and the joint fundraising committee have cooperated with the government’s investigation.

Each count of making a false statement carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

The prosecution is being conducted by the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C. headed by Section Chief Noel L. Hillman. The government is represented by Trial Attorneys Peter Zeidenberg and Daniel Schwager of the Public Integrity Section. The matter was investigated by the Los Angeles Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Criminal indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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