Firm’s Campaign Donations Investigated : Oxnard: The developer of a proposed card club says the grand jury is questioning the legality of seven contributions.

A Ventura developer who proposed a large card club for Oxnard last spring acknowledged Friday that the Ventura County grand jury is investigating his company’s campaign contributions to public officials as possible criminal money-laundering.

Michael E. Wooten, 45, president of the defunct Darrik Marten Co., said the grand jury has questioned the legality of seven small contributions that the company made indirectly to Oxnard Councilmen Michael Plisky and Thomas Holden, former Councilwoman Dorothy Maron and Assemblyman Nao Takasugi.

Wooten said his company reimbursed three of its employees for contributions totaling $1,097 to four campaigns--$500 to Maron’s 1990 council race, $250 to Takasugi’s 1992 Assembly race, $149 to Plisky’s 1992 mayoral race, and $198 to Holden’s council race this year.

Contributions are illegal under state law if the true identities of contributors are not revealed to candidates. Wooten said the contributions were made under the names of his employees, but the money came from his company.

The indirect contributions usually were made along with direct donations by Wooten or his company, Wooten said.

“It was to show broad-based support (for candidates) from our company,” and the employees could not readily afford the contributions, he said.

“At the time these reimbursements were made, the company and its officers thought we were complying with all laws and were not aware this practice might have been a violation of the contribution laws, as is now being alleged,” Wooten said.

He said the contributions were “simply a matter of an uninformed business practice” and separate from his company’s card club proposal--one of three rejected by the Oxnard City Council in June when members decided not to bring big-time gambling to the city.

Wooten said two $250 contributions to Maron were made in 1990, long before a card club was an issue in Oxnard. And Takasugi was in no position to influence the city’s decision on a card club because he was the outgoing mayor in 1992 and was running for the Legislature, the developer said.

Wooten said he and company co-owner Frank Marasco have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury Oct. 4. Grand jury witnesses so far include Maron, Plisky and Judy Takasugi, the assemblyman’s wife and campaign treasurer, sources said.

“We will make every attempt to answer the grand jury’s questions about these matters,” Wooten said.

Ironically, Wooten said he may have helped provide evidence against himself when he responded to Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury’s dramatic announcement of a card-club related probe of money laundering at a City Council meeting June 22.

Bradbury’s comments, which came just before the City Council unanimously rejected a card casino, linked the money laundering to casino promoters. He subsequently said that he had evidence of money laundering by Wooten’s firm.

Wooten said he responded by writing letters to Holden and Maron, notifying them that his company had reimbursed employees for contributions to both of their council campaigns. He said he told the officials he was ignorant of the law against such undeclared reimbursements.

He said he called Takasugi’s office to notify the assemblyman of the same problem. After consulting an attorney, he then decided not to notify Plisky, Wooten said.

“We just didn’t know that there was a problem with this until we heard that it was being investigated by the district attorney’s office,” Wooten said Friday.

Maron and Plisky declined to comment on their testimony this week before the grand jury. Judy Takasugi could not be reached for comment, and Nao Takasugi said he only knows that the investigation deals with contributions by card club promoters.

Holden said he had received some information related to the probe and turned it over to Bradbury’s office, but would not comment further.

Public officials can be charged with the laundering of campaign contributions if they are aware of the true source of the money but do not declare it on their public campaign reports.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Geb, who is overseeing the grand jury inquiry, would not comment on whether any public officials are also a focus of this investigation. But Geb said that Holden has cooperated with the probe and is not under investigation.

Bradbury had said in late June, midway through the money-laundering investigation, that he had evidence only of illegal activity by contributors, not by council members or other candidates.

Plisky said he is guilty of no wrongdoing.

“There’s no way to know, unless we’re told, that the money is laundered,” Plisky said. “And I haven’t been notified by anybody (that it was).”

The money-laundering inquiry grew out of a broader Bradbury probe into card clubs and the promoters who were trying to build a large casino in Oxnard. The council was considering the proposals because of tax and job benefits.

In his report to the City Council, Bradbury condemned card clubs as corrupters of local government. And he cited as a local example his evidence of money laundering to Oxnard officials.

Bradbury reported that Wooten and Marasco had made significant contributions to City Council candidates. He also noted the checkered histories of two other promoters, both convicted felons, who had contributed about $7,000 to candidates in the November, 1992, and March, 1993, city elections.

There was no indication Friday that anyone other than Wooten and Marasco is still under investigation.

“The focus of the grand jury investigation seems to be (this) company’s reimbursement to company employees for a few small campaign contributions,” Wooten said.