Villaraigosa donors agree to pay ethics fines

Two Florida-based contributors to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have agreed to pay the city’s Ethics Commission $108,000 in fines for participating in a scheme to circumvent the city’s fundraising limits in the 2005 election.

The fines, if approved by the five-member panel next week, would be the fifth largest in the agency’s 19-year history.

Sean Anderson and Richard Manhire, owners of Miami-based Travel Traders, agreed to the fines as part of a settlement in which they admitted to laundering $36,000 in campaign contributions. When combined with fines from their recent criminal case, total penalties resulting from the scheme exceed $312,000.

Anderson and Manhire pleaded guilty two weeks ago to misdemeanor charges of campaign money laundering. They had been seeking concessions at L.A. International Airport.

An investigation by the Los Angeles County district attorney and the Ethics Commission found that Manhire and Anderson had arranged for employees of Travel Traders and W.H. Smith, as well as family members of those employees, to contribute money to Villaraigosa’s mayoral bid. Travel Traders then reimbursed those donors, a move that circumvented the city’s spending limits, which prohibit donors from giving more than $1,000 per election cycle to a candidate.

Prosecutors said last month that they found no evidence to suggest that the mayor knew the contributions, which were provided between September 2004 and April 2005, were laundered when his campaign received them.

Villaraigosa had dinner with Anderson on Sept. 27, 2004. A day later, Anderson’s company began making multiple donations to Villaraigosa’s campaign committee.

Villaraigosa has insisted that he did not discuss airport concessions during his meal with Anderson. He returned the contributions eight months later after the questionable donations became the subject of several news stories.

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david.zahniser@latimes.com