Notoriety follows David Rivera pal in Nicaragua

@PatriciaMazzei

GRANADA, Nicaragua -- In this quaint colonial town, vigilant residents who keep close tabs on their neighbors know the enigmatic woman asDoña Anita, a sometime hairdresser with a mean temper.

They describe her as a night owl prone to cursing, buying Coca-Cola by the case and watching dirty movies so loudly the volume has kept them up at night.

The FBI in Miami knows her as Ana Sol Alliegro, a political consultant and potential key witness in a federal corruption investigation into whether former U.S. Rep. David Rivera had ties to an illegally funded congressional campaign.

In Miami, Alliegro has a reputation as an erratic political operative, a three-time failed candidate who describes herself on Twitter as a “Republican Political Guru and Conservative Bad Girl!”

When she became the center of the investigation last fall into long-time friend Rivera, Alliegro disappeared.

She reappeared in Granada, where she has been living for months and only added to her notoriety.

Neighbors, who say they are so frightened of her they asked not to be identified by name, say she smashed an ex-lover’s car windows and tried to set fire to his windshield after accusing him of sexually assaulting her.

Occasionally, locals have spotted her around town with Rivera, whom townspeople readily identified in photographs shown by a Herald reporter: “Ah,Don David!”

Alliegro, 43, denied it all in an interview last week with The Miami Herald, from the disparaging accounts of her behavior to receiving any visits from Rivera.

“Write what you want to write,” she said.

More here.

Did Ana Alliegro double-cross David Rivera, secretly record him in scandal?

@MarcACaputo

A friend of former U.S. Rep. David Rivera who’s implicated in a federal corruption investigation made a recording of the Republican last year — and now prosecutors have the evidence, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald have learned.

Ana Alliegro made the recording, perhaps secretly, months before the FBI raided her home and seized her computer last year. She later skipped town and was last seen in Nicaragua.

Alliegro played a key role in the ill-fated Democratic congressional campaign of Justin Lamar Sternad, who in February admitted receiving $81,486 in illegal contributions and aid from unnamed “coconspirators.”

Nicaragua-exiled gal pal of David Rivera: "I am not a fugitive," witness in criminal case "lying"

 @MarcACaputo

One who flees is a fugitive, according to Webster's Dictionary.

But Ana Alliegro, who fled to Nicaragua amid a federal-grand jury investigation for her involvement with a criminal congressional campaign linked to boyfriend David Rivera, has her own definitions of things.

"I am not a fugitive," Alliegro tells Miami New Times in an exclusive interview. "I am tired of being depicted as one."

Alliegro has refused to talk to The Herald ever since we unmasked the criminal campaign of one-time congressional candidate Justin Lamar Sternad, her role in it and then reported her own criminal record. Sternad, used as a proxy to trash Rivera's political opponent Joe Garcia, pleaded guilty to campaign-finance and conspiracy violations. He is cooperating with the feds. He said he was "used."

In The New Times piece, Alliegro suggests she didn't do the using.

Alliegro doesn't shed much light on what she did for the campaign or why, as a Republican, she would help run a Democrat's campaign. She doesn't explain why, as a girlfriend of Rivera, she ran the campaign of Sternad, who theoretically would have faced Rivera had he not lost Aug. 14 to Garcia, who went on to beat Rivera in the general election.

The New Times piece provides more insight into Alliegro's personality and relationship with Rivera (it got a hold of some of her emails and confirmed that Rivera booked a romantic Nicaraguan vacation for the two). Alliegro blames her problems on "liberals" and said she flew to Nicaragua after she was jailed in an unrelated matter.

And Alliegro's no stranger to jail.

As The Herald reported and the New Times notes as well, she was busted for shoplifting and for pulling a gun on her ex-husband after comparing the weapon to her version of a powerful penis. In another sexually charged matter, Alliegro sent racy pictures of herself (two in a nighty and one topless photo of herself in the shower) to a Miami political consultant years ago in the hopes, the consultant tells us, that he'd leak them to blogger and stir up controversy in the hopes of getting clients (yes, we have the pictures).

Alliegro does accuse her ex, Moshe Cosicher, of domestic violence. But Cosicher's daughter told The Miami Herald that Alliegro self-inflicted her injuries -- claiming initially that she was attacked by a raccoon -- and tried to use the wounds and phony domestic-violence claim to blackmail Cosicher into staying married. Prosecutors didn't buy her story and she didn't press charges.

Even Alliegro acknowledges she's "crazy." Now, according to New Times, she's claiming she had a horse-riding head injury that has impaired her memory. What a coincidence. Maybe a raccoon knocked her off the horse.

As for the latest crime that involves her, Alliegro says she's innocent. She said she didn't ferry illegal campaign money to and from Sternad, who has told prosecutors that she did.

Sternad's not the only one. John Borrero, who runs the mail house that Sternad used to send out his campaign fliers, told The Herald and then the FBI that Alliegro delivered stacks of cash and checks for his services.

"Borrero is lying," she tells New Times. "I'm crazy, but I am not stupid."

Alliegro also told New Times she didn't have a central role running Sternad's campaign.

"Let's be clear: I was never Justin's campaign manager," Alliegro said. "He never paid me a dime."

Sternad told us in August that she was his campaign manager. She didn't return our calls on the matter, so when I reached out to her on Twitter, she ducked the question Aug. 14, the day of the District 26 Democratic primary that saw the end of Sternad's campaign.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU CALLED MY VERY PUBLIC TELEPHONE NUMBER? YOU DID NOT AND YOU CALL REACHING OUT VIA TWITTERS," she said. "LOL."

Nothing says reasonable discourse like ALL CAPS evasions.

"I called the number I was given, called your ex and tried this. And you still haven't answered," I responded.

"how about you do your job. Caputo-I am tired and going to sleep. Again, highly unprofessional and wreckless," she wrote back.

And on it went.

In the New Times piece, Alliegro said she's willing to testify and will be back in Miami to renew her passport. She said she's not hiding. "She admits she wanted to lay low," New Times reports.

"I haven't abandoned my country," she said. "I feel my country has abandoned me. But if I have to testify I will. Make no mistake about it, I will not take the Fifth. I will answer what ever questions they ask me."

If that happens, she'll have to give honest answers as well.

Marco Rubio's immigration expert draws fire from hardliners

Sen. Marco Rubio's decision to hire immigration lawyer Enrique Gonzalez, a longtime friend and practicing expert in the field, is drawing fire from the conservative Daily Caller (and its readers if you check the comments section):

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s top lawyer in the closed-door effort to draft a new immigration bill is a Democratic donor who earns his living by bringing foreign workers into the country on behalf of corporations and universities.

The lawyer, Enrique Gonzalez, is a partner at the nation’s largest immigration firm, whose future depends on the outcome of Gonzalez’s closed-door work.

Rubio hired Gonzalez in January, when he was a partner at the Coral Gables, Fla., office of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy.

Former aide, printing house become witnesses in David Rivera investigation

@MarcACaputo

A former aide of U.S. Rep. David Rivera and a printing company have both become witnesses in the federal investigation of the Republican politician’s ties to an illegally funded congressional campaign, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald have learned.

The cooperation of former Rivera aide Ivette Pinto and Expert Printing & Graphics in Doral mark another major milestone in a criminal case that has already resulted in the guilty plea of Democratic congressional candidate Justin Lamar Sternad.

Fueled with at least $81,486 in secret money, Sternad’s campaign was used as a proxy to undermine a political rival of Rivera, who denies wrongdoing.

After guilty plea, suspect in David Rivera campaign-finance scandal: 'I was used'

@MarcACaputo

Justin Lamar Sternad didn’t have to say much Friday when he admitted guilt in a federal case targeting former Miami U.S. Rep. David Rivera.

But Sternad wanted to apologize.

And he wanted to send a message: he’s ready to testify against those who helped lead him and his doomed congressional campaign into the maw of the federal justice system.

“I was taken advantage of and used by others,” Sternad said in a statement, hastily handwritten on a yellow legal pad and read by his lawyer, Enrique “Rick” Yabor, outside of the federal courthouse.

“This is not an excuse, nor do I want this interpreted as an excuse,” Sternad said. “I would now like to publicly apologize to God, my country, my wife, children, family and friends.”

Jeb Bush, Miami GOP mourn passing of Mary Ellen Miller

Mary Ellen Miller, a revered Republican elder stateswoman who rose through party-activist ranks to twice chair the party in Miami-Dade County, died Wednesday at her Venetian Island home.

She was a dignified, private person who declined to discuss her illness, which took even close friends by surprise, according to Liliana Ros, a longtime GOP committeewoman and friend.

Often compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Miller advised Republican governors, local officials, members of Congress and the Florida Legislature.

She was known for being as discreet as she was connected. It’s said that she never spoke ill of anyone, even Democrats.

“Even after she retired, we still went to her,’’ Ros said. “She knew everything: state laws, party laws. She was very gentle, sweet. She had no ego, and that in politics that is very unusual. … She would get upset if you praised her.’’

Over the years, Miller supported Sen. Marco Rubio, former U.S. Rep. David Rivera, both Bush presidents, and former Gov. Jeb Bush, among others.

“Mary Ellen was a great Republican and an even finer person,’’ Jeb Bush, who’d been the county’s party chairman in the 1980s, wrote in an email. “No one worked harder. No one was more committed. You could count on Mary Ellen Miller, and everyone did.’’

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/07/3272439/mary-ellen-miller-former-chairwoman.html#storylink=cpy

 

Suspected ringer-candidate in David Rivera case to plea guilty

@MarcACaputo

A former candidate whose suspicious campaign finances led to an FBI investigation of him and former Congressman David Rivera plans to plead guilty next Wednesday in federal court to conspiracy and false-statement charges.

The change of plea by Justin Lamar Sternad was expected to happen soon because he's cooperating with the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Sternad has told investigators that Rivera's friend, Ana Alliegro, was his campaign manager and helped steer secret money to his congressional campaign against the former congressman's rival, Joe Garcia, who went on to beat Sternad in the Aug. 14 Democratic primary. Garcia then defeated Rivera in the general election.

Rivera has denied wrongdoing. Alliegro's whereabouts are unclear.

Here's last week's story

And here's last week's column

 

The Rivera files: Why Mr Smith...er...Mr. Sternad didn’t go to Washington

@MarcACaputo

Lamar Will Take Us Far.

The catchy slogan of the congressional candidate who called himself Lamar Sternad was the earliest indication of a campaign of deception. His first name isn’t Lamar.

But Justin Lamar Sternad’s slogan was spot-on in one regard.

Of the hundreds of no-name political neophytes who mount quixotic bids for office in Miami, Sternad went farther than them all: The 10th floor of a federal justice building.

There in open court Friday, Sternad was formally accused of violating three federal laws stemming from his suspicious campaign finances, which were first uncovered in an investigation by The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald.

Federal charges against alleged ringer "a message to Rivera."

A one-time candidate whose suspicious campaign finances led to an FBI investigation of former Miami Congressman David Rivera was formally charged Friday in federal court with three crimes.

Shackled at the wrists, waist and feet, Justin Lamar Sternad pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, false-statement and illegal campaign-contribution charges.

Sternad is expected to strike a plea deal as he cooperates with federal authorities in their investigation of Rivera and the former representative’s close friend, Ana Alliegro, who managed Sternad’s disastrous Democratic primary campaign for a Kendall-to-Key West congressional seat.

Neither Rivera nor Alliegro is listed by name in the 10-page federal charging document, which lists Sternad’s nameless “co-conspirators” hand-delivering stacks of cash and checks to campaign vendors.

In all, Sternad received at least $81,486 in unreported cash and checks in less than three months last summer, the charging document said. The money helped pay for some fliers that attacked a Democratic rival of Rivera, a Republican.

“This was a message to Rivera. It’s a preview of what the indictment against Rivera will look like,” David S. Weinstein, who once led federal public-corruption prosecutions in the Southern District of Florida, told The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald after reviewing the case.

Rivera, who has maintained his innocence, refused comment but pointed to past statements in which he said he never has been informed by authorities of a federal investigation.

Weinstein pointed out that the charging document indicates prosecutors are hunting for a “big fish.” A sign of Sternad’s cooperation: he was charged by an “information” sheet filed directly by prosecutors, instead of an indictment by a grand jury.

The charging information against Sternad is about three times longer than typical information sheets and is filled with details — check numbers, bank account names, dates of transactions — that telegraph what Rivera is facing, Weinstein said.

Sternad faces a maximum five years imprisonment and $250,000 for each count, but he’ll probably get a far lighter sentence, Weinstein said, noting that the defendant could have faced more serious money-laundering charges.

“Sternad is clearly talking, he’s telling what happened and what he knows,” Weinstein said. “If this was a standard information, and not a shot across the bow at Rivera, this wouldn’t have all the detail you see.”

But, Weinstein said, Rivera could prove tough to prosecute because Alliegro’s whereabouts are unclear.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/22/3248213/in-david-rivera-investigation.html#storylink=cpy