From shoplifting sandals to shooting at her ex (while naked), David Rivera’s pal in FBI probe has checkered past

When Justin Lamar Sternad met Ana Sol Alliegro at a Kendall Ale House, he didn’t know the political consultant would help lead his campaign into the FBI’s crosshairs or that she had prior legal run-ins — including the time she shot at her ex-husband while naked.

Alliegro is a key figure in a federal investigation of Sternad’s campaign finances that focuses on the funneling of tens of thousands in cash tied to U.S. Rep. David Rivera.

Authorities believe Rivera and Alliegro, both Republicans, helped the Democratic Sternad undermine a political rival in his recent congressional primary race.

“Politics is rough and I play like it,” Alliegro, 42, once tweeted on Twitter.

Now she’s missing or has been in hiding for the past two weeks, according to her family and lawyer, who said they’re “worried” about her.

A self-described “Republican bad girl,” Alliegro doesn’t appear to be cooperating with authorities investigating Sternad’s campaign. The political newcomer and part-time hotel worker lost the Aug. 14 Democratic primary race to Rivera rival Joe Garcia, who faces Rivera in the Nov. 6 general election for the Kendall-to-Key West seat.

Alliegro initially planned to cooperate with the FBI and make a statement on Thursday, Sept. 6. But she was a no-show.

The day before, she met with Rivera, who faces a separate criminal investigation into his personal and political finances.

The investigation into Sternad’s campaign concerns laws prohibiting money laundering, intentionally filing false campaign reports and conspiracy. No charges have been filed against Sternad, Alliegro or Rivera.

And it’s not the first time Alliegro has faced legal problems.

Two weeks ago, right after FBI agents raided her apartment and seized her computer, Miami Police arrested her on an old warrant for driving with a suspended license. She spent the weekend in jail, where she complained about the smell and view from her cell.

In 2009, she was arrested for shoplifting a pair of $29.99 sandals from Ross on Biscayne Boulevard. The charge was later dropped.

In January 2007, she was arrested in a dispute with her ex-husband, Moshe Cosicher, at his Tigertail Ave. home in Coconut Grove. They had been divorced for two years, but Alliegro wanted to get remarried, according to reports from Miami police and prosecutors.

“We are going to Vegas,” she told Cosicher, a report said. The report noted that when Cosicher refused, she grabbed a gun, which appeared to be a .45 that she kept at bed side.

She then sat naked at a desk with her leg up and compared the gun to a male sexual organ.

“If you think your [expletive] is powerful (showing the gun), this is mine,” Alliegro told Cosicher, who tried to ignore her by going to make coffee, a report said. Alliegro followed him and told him to sit on the couch.

She fired a round into the ceiling.

“You see. It’s loaded — this is business,” Alliegro allegedly said. He tried to leave.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/24/3019360/from-a-shooting-to-shoplifting.html#storylink=cpy

Joe Garcia unveils TV spots in Miami congressional race against Rep. David Rivera

Democrat Joe Garcia has begun airing television spots in his congressional campaign against incumbent Miami Republican Rep. David Rivera.

One spot is aimed at Miami-Dade. The other targets the Florida Keys. Congressional District 26 runs from Kendall to Key West.

The Miami-Dade ad, titled "Enough," makes an indirect reference to the investigations that have plagued Rivera, over his personal and campaign finances and over whether he helped steer tens of thousands of unreported dollars to a primary opponent of Garcia's.

"Scandals, corruption, partisan infighting -- no wonder people have lost faith in Congress," Garcia says on the spot, filmed in part in Homestead's Harris Field. "I say enough is enough."

The ad features Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace, who in his nearly three decades in power has amassed his share of critics (including some cited in this Miami New Times article). Wallace has never been charged with any wrongdoing. (Neither has Rivera.)

The second ad, titled "Captain Worthington," features commercial fisherman and Marathon Mayor Pete Worthington.

FBI examines Wite-Outed invoices, envelopes that were cash-stuffed in David Rivera investigation

A key witness in a federal grand jury case involving U.S. Rep.David Rivera is still missing, but she left important evidence behind for investigators: at least four envelopes that had been stuffed with unreported campaign cash.

Ana Alliegro, a Republican political operative, delivered the cash-stuffed envelopes to a Hialeah mail house that sent out fliers in a congressional race against a Rivera political rival, the mail house owner told the FBI.

The FBI has the envelopes to check for fingerprints and handwriting comparisons.

Also in the hands of FBI agents: at least six invoices initially made out to the attention of David Rivera — all marked paid “cash” — to cover the mailings for Democratic primary challenger Justin Lamar Sternad, a suspected Rivera straw-man candidate. The congressman demanded that his name be removed from the invoices with Wite-Out, documents and interviews show.

Alliegro went missing two weeks ago, shortly after her computer was seized by FBI agents and just hours before she was scheduled to talk to a federal prosecutor about her involvement in the Rivera-Sternad operation. She also had been jailed by Miami cops on an old suspended driver-license warrant.

“Am I worried? Yes,” Mauricio Padilla, her lawyer, said Friday. “I have not heard or seen her. This has never happened to me before.”

Enrique “Rick” Yabor, who represents Sternad, said he and his client would not comment.

Full story here

Democratic superPAC poll: Joe Garcia 50%, David Rivera 41%

A new, Democratic poll shows Democrat Joe Garcia leading incumbent Republican Rep. David Rivera, 50 percent to 41 percent.

The poll was conducted by the House Majority PAC, a political action committee that backs democrats running for Congress, and the Service Employees international Union. The survey has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.9 percent.

The poll was conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group, a Washington D.C.-based Democratic polling firm. They made live calls in English and Spanish to 400 likely voters from Sept. 8-13.

A poll by the same firm conducted last month for the Garcia campaign showed Garcia ahead of Rivera 49 percent to 40 percent. And a poll released earlier this week by Democracy For America, a liberal PAC founded by Howard Dean, had Garcia up 46 percent to 39 percent.

The Hill, however, reported earlier this week that an internal Rivera poll has the incumbent congressman leading Garcia 44 percent to 38 percent.

Rivera handily defeated Garcia two years ago, 52 percent to 43 percent. Garcia lost to then-incumbent Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart in 2008.

The newly redrawn Congressional District 26, however, is slightly less favorable to Republicans. It stretches from Kendall to Key West.

Read the PAC's release after the jump. The full memo is here.

D.C. analysts: Outlook less favorable for U.S. Rep. David Rivera's reelection

Two well-known Washington D.C. political analysts have updated their ratings of the congressional race between U.S. Rep. David Rivera, a Republican, and Democratic challenger Joe Garcia.

Both changes are less favorable for Rivera, who has been connected to a campaign-finance investigation into one of Garcia's primary opponents, Justin Lamar Sternad. (Here's the latest article on that investigation.) Rivera has accused The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald of being in cahoots with Garcia's campaign.

The Cook Political Report has switched its rating from "Lean Republican" to "Toss Up." The Rothenberg Political Report has moved its rating from "Lean Republican" to "Toss-up/Tilt Republican."

"By the numbers it shouldn't be a competitive district, but with Rivera, with all of his ongoing legal problems and investigations surrounding him, it makes him more vulnerable," Rothenberg senior analyst Jessica Taylor said.

In FBI probe, friend of Rep. David Rivera goes on the lam, has computer seized

A key witness in a federal investigation involving U.S. Rep. David Rivera failed to show up for an interview with prosecutors and the FBI one day after agents raided her Miami apartment and removed her computer, cell phone and other items.

Ana Alliegro’s whereabouts are a mystery — even to her lawyer.

“I have no idea where she is,” attorney Mauricio Padilla said Friday night. “I have not talked to Ana since Wednesday.”

Prosecutors believe Alliegro played a key role as a go-between for Rivera and a former Democratic congressional candidate who might have broken campaign finance laws in his failed bid against a rival of the Republican congressman in the Aug. 14 primary.

Alliegro had been scheduled to testify Thursday before a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, but Padilla worked out a deal to speak directly to lead prosecutor Thomas J. Mulvihill and two FBI agents. Padilla and Alliegro met Wednesday to prepare for the meeting, but later that day Alliegro said Rivera met with her.

According to Alliegro’s family, Padilla was scheduled to pick her up at her apartment since she had no car and a suspended driver’s license. But she called her lawyer to say she would drive instead with her father.

That’s the last her attorney heard from her.

“Everything is fine,” said Alliegro’s mother, Agueda “Guedy” Alliegro. “I haven’t spoken to her, but she is OK.”

Guedy Alliegro said investigators had previously met with her daughter to serve her a federal subpoena and arrest her for a suspended driver’s license.

“Who gets arrested for that?” she asked. “Ana is innocent. She really doesn’t have anything to offer. She is being harassed for political interests.”

The case definitely involves politics.

At issue: $46,000 in once-secret payments — many made with cash-stuffed envelopes — that candidate Justin Lamar Sternad used for mailers in his unsuccessful primary race against Joe Garcia, who now faces Rivera in the general election.

Sternad’s campaign finance disclosure reports initially gave no indication that he had paid for the mailers. But he later amended the reports amid the FBI investigation.

Investigators have focused on Alliegro because she acted as Sternad’s campaign manager. She may have first-hand knowledge of the source of the funds and whether Rivera was involved in funding the campaign of the political unknown, a part-time night-time hotel worker.

More here

(post has been substantially updated)



As FBI and questions swirl, Marco Rubio keeps distance from "Nixonian" pal David Rivera

Imagine if Sen. Marco Rubio had been picked as Mitt Romney's vice presidential candidate, only to have the story break about Rep. David Rivera's potential involvement in a campaign that is facing a federal grand jury investigation.

It probably wasn't tough to forsee for the Romney campaign, where some insiders were nervous about Rivera, who's already under federal investigation in connection with a $500,000 secret dog-track payment.

Now comes the complicated case of Democratic candidate Justin Lamar Sternad, whose campaign was run by a Rivera pal against a Rivera foe, Joe Garcia in the just-ended Aug. 14 primary. Garcia, who faces Rivera, was trashed in a Sternad mailer that was printed, mailed and data-targeted by three companies with ties to Rivera.

The case is replete with cash-stuffed envelopes and a mystery candidate/part-time hotel worker who amended campaign reports to show he loaned himself $64,000 on an annual income of $30,000. Oh, yeah, Sternad has declared bankruptcy before and his wife struggled to pay her credit card bill, leading Capitol One to win a default judgment against her.

The amended finance reports, however, raise more questions than answers as today's story shows.

Rivera initially denied involvement, but now he's changing his story. Albeit, in Spanish. Rivera ducks questions to the English-speaking press. But he sure does sweat.

Still, it hasn't gone unnoticed in the Florida delegation at the Republican National Convention, where folks are whispering about Rivera. Even Rubio's inner circle believes Rivera did it. Many use the same word to describe Rivera: "Nixonian," a nod to the fact that the Miami Congressman has a reputation for getting involved in schemes he doesn't need.

The Sternad case stands out as being particularly odd.

And Rubio, who still owns a Tallahassee house that was almost foreclosed upon when Rivera suggested they stop making their monthly payments, is keeping his distance.

“I only know what I’ve read in the press. I haven’t had a chance to speak with him since that all came out. I just hope none of it is true. I continue to give him the benefit of the doubt on all these things. I just hope none of it is true,” Rubio said.
 
He said he hasn’t spoken to him because: “I’ve been really busy the last 10 days. I was on vacation and then I’ve been here. I’m not sure he’s here.”

Congressman David Rivera sweats, ducks questions about federal grand-jury probe on TV

There are two David Riveras.

 One of them goes on Spanish-language radio and TV where he holds forth, relatively unchallenged, to deny basic facts about The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald stories detailing the Republican Congressman's ties to a campaign that's the subject of a federal grand jury investigation in a cash-for-mailers scheme (last story is here). Denying investigations is nothing new for Rivera, who said last year he wasn't under state investigation and had no lawyer. But it turns out, he was under investigation and had a lawyer at the time he made his misstatements.

The other David Rivera says almost nothing in English about the investigation. He refuses to answer simple yes or no questions, issues statements from a campaign email account and doesn't sweat any details -- though he sweated through the difficult questions Friday during interviews with WPLG-10's Michael Putney and WSVN-7's Carmel Cafiero.

Both had to hunt Rivera down at an event and had a devil of a time getting Rivera to directly answer questions about his ties to Democratic candidate Justin Lamar Sternad, who lost to Joe Garcia in the Aug. 14 Democratic primary. They asked him at least 10 times.

Here's how WSVN begins its piece on the web: "Florida congressman David Rivera dodging questions about the campaign of a failed candidate that is now the focus of an FBI investigation." And WPLG's headline: "Congressman avoids questions about filing false financial campaign reports."

These are not the kinds of optics a campaign wants.

But, with a majority-Hispanic congressional seat stretching from Kendall-to-Key West, it might not matter. It appears that Rivera has decided to give access and answers to Spanish-language media, which probably means that he expects to blow away Democrat Joe Garcia, using stations like Radio Mambi that play to older Cuban-Americans.

On Univision (channel 23), Rivera waved Sternad's campaign finance disclosure forms in front of the reporter and camera as evidence that Sternad had reported his expenses. What he didn't tell Univision is that the reports were filed a week after the Aug. 14 primary, a potential violation of federal campaign finance laws.

In the same interview, Rivera also argued that he had never exchanged emails with Sternad nor his campaign vendors. What he didn't say was that he had told the Miami Herald that his campaign may have erroneously exchanged emails with the same campaign vendors during the Democratic primary campaign.

The Univison interview here

Rivera still hasn't answered, in any language, how he got access to Sternad's amended financial reports before they became public record. Nor has he explained how he has shown relatively detailed knowledge about Sternad's finances. Nor has he clearly explained why his former campaign vendors, who happened to work for Sternad as well, said he was involved with Sternad's campaign. Nor has he said why his lady friend Ana Alliegro, a self-described "Republican political guru" just happened to be the campaign manager for Sternad the Democrat.

WSVN-TV -

Democrats launch new web site to target David Rivera

U.S. Rep. David Rivera's latest political woes have provided convenient fodder for a liberal super-pac that does opposition research into Democratic opponents.

The George Soros-backed group, American Bridge 21st Century has launced a web site called the "TheRivera Files.com," featuring a stream of television and newsaper stories about investigations into the Republican congressman's personal and campaign finances, including links to stories first reported by The Miami Herald. 

"Since 2006, Florida Rep. David Rivera has been the subject of five different investigations for alleged ethical violations, including money laundering, tax evasion, and funding a fake primary challenge against his likely Democratic opponent. We don’t think this behavior is appropriate for a member of Congress. Do you?,'' asks the site.

Rivera has been linked to a failed Democratic congressional candidate, Justin Lamar Sternad, whose campaign is under federal grand jury investigation. Campaign vendors told The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald that Sternad’s congressional Democratic primary run was backed by Rivera, who says he has never met or helped Sternad. 

According to FactCheck.org, American Bridge 21st Century was founded by David Brock, a conservative-turned-liberal activist, and amongs its principal funders is billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros.

Fed grand jury alert: suspected David Rivera-ringer changes financial reports amid investigation

A failed Democratic congressional candidate whose campaign is under federal grand jury investigation abruptly amended his financial disclosures to show he loaned himself nearly $53,000 more than he originally reported.

Before filing the new report, Justin Lamar Sternad, 35, insisted his finances were in order and steadfastly refused to say how he paid for tens of thousands of dollars worth of campaign-mail services.

Many of the transactions were in cash — sometimes in the form of $100 bills stuffed in envelopes, a campaign vendor said.

The big cash payments drew the attention of the FBI, which began examining the working-class hotel employee, a political unknown who now claims to have dropped about $64,000 of his own money in his Aug. 14 primary loss.

Campaign vendors told The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald that Sternad’s congressional Democratic primary run was backed by Republican Rep. David Rivera, who says he has never met or helped Sternad. During the campaign, Sternad bashed Rivera’s main rival, Joe Garcia. Garcia handily won and faces Rivera in November.

Rivera and Sternad have denied working in concert. Rivera has publicly attacked Sternad’s campaign vendors who spoke about his role, calling them liars or Herald lackeys. Sternad has blamed them for his reporting problems.

“I did not previously report this loan because I was unaware of the final monetary obligation incurred by my campaign,” Sternad wrote to the Federal Election Commission, which posted his letter Thursday. “I have now received invoices for the expenditures ... and this amendment represents satisfaction of those invoices.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/23/2965170/suspected-ringer-candidate-backed.html#storylink=cpy

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