Broker Fined $6,000 in Campaign Scam
A Sherman Oaks insurance broker was fined $6,000 Monday for allegedly helping pro-Israeli activist Michael R. Goland launder campaign contributions in an attempt to influence the outcome of the 1986 California Senate race.
Michael B. Altman, 43, who admitted acting as an intermediary for money from Goland that secretly financed a commercial for a third-party candidate, was also placed on two years’ probation.
Goland and two other confederates are on trial on election fraud charges stemming from Goland’s effort to divert support away from Republican nominee Ed Zschau, whom he considered a lukewarm supporter of Israel. Only days before the election, Goland financed a television commercial for American Independent Party candidate Edward Vallen, using Altman as an intermediary for the funds.
Goland claims he was running a legal independent expenditure campaign, but prosecutors say he was illegally attempting to hide the source of the financing by channeling it through Altman and several subsequent straw donors whom he allegedly reimbursed.
Altman pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor count of aiding the making of a campaign contribution in the name of another.
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