The complaint sought to sanction Pierluisi for allegedly illegally funding his campaign for governorship, in which the CAP Save Puerto Rico had been instrumental in injuring the figure of Vázquez Garced.
Dávila Torres argued that the Pedro Pierluisi Committee, Inc. registered Save Puerto Rico with the United States Federal Election Commission (FEC) and not the OCE in order to circumvent collection limits set by Puerto Rican law to fund the campaign.
Puerto Rico’s election controller, Walter Vélez Martínez, noted that it is fitting for the legislature to enact changes to the campaign finance law of this Caribbean island, which has been under the northern nation’s colonial rule for just over 124 years.
Puerto Rico’s Campaign Funding Law 222-2011 sets a maximum donation of two thousand eight hundred dollars for an individual, for which Dávila Torres claimed Pierluisi used the PAC to raise more money for the campaign.
“There is no evidence of instances where specific expenditures for electoral purposes were made by the SPR upon request, proposal or mutual agreement with the Committee or with the New Progressive Party (PNP), or after they had agreed on the content, period, Place, type or frequency of issue,” noted the election controller.
Law 222 does not prohibit a candidate, nominee, or staff member of the Political Action Committee from suggesting to a third party that they donate money to an independent spending committee that favors them, such as Save Puerto Rico, the election controller said.
The PAC Salvemos a Puerto Rico was founded by Joseph Fuentes, who pleaded guilty in United States District Court to a scheme in which he concealed the identities of 16 financiers between individuals and companies of the Pierluisi campaign, just entering its third year the four-year term.
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