Ex-Promoters to Be Charged With Money Laundering : Crime: Grand jury declines to indict Michael E. Wooten and Frank Marasco on conspiracy charges. They are accused of making indirect contributions to four public officials.

Ventura County prosecutors said Monday that they plan to charge two former promoters of an Oxnard card casino with misdemeanor political money laundering, but the county grand jury has declined to indict them on more serious conspiracy charges.

Michael E. Wooten, 45, of Camarillo and Frank Marasco, 48, of Ventura each will be charged today with six counts of violating state law by making small contributions indirectly to two Oxnard councilmen, one former councilwoman and an assemblyman, prosecutors said.

“This is the kind of activity that would tend to corrupt politics in this county,” Deputy Dist. Atty. John Geb said. “When we get involved in money and political influence, we start leaving the democratic process.”

All four public officials who received the illegal contributions were unaware of their true source and will not charged with a crime, Geb said.

In a seventh criminal count unrelated to politics but discovered during the money-laundering probe, developers Wooten and Marasco will also be charged with grand theft for allegedly pocketing $10,000 of a construction loan for a Santa Paula housing project, Geb said.

Wooten and Marasco, co-owners of the defunct Darrik Marten Co. in Ventura, allegedly submitted a false $10,000 construction voucher to a consortium of Ventura County investors in 1992, then used the money personally without telling the lender, Geb said.

Each developer faces up to three years in prison and a fine of $10,000 for the alleged theft. Each money-laundering count carries a maximum penalty of one year in county jail and a $10,000 fine, Geb said.

However, the county grand jury decided last week not to indict on a felony charge that the two businessmen conspired to launder political contributions, Geb said.

Contributions are generally illegal under state law if the true identities of contributors are not revealed to candidates.

Wooten and Marasco will be charged with illegally reimbursing three former employees for contributions to former Oxnard Councilwoman Dorothy Maron’s 1990 council race, Assemblyman Nao Takasugi’s 1992 Assembly race, Councilman Michael Plisky’s 1992 mayoral race and Councilman Thomas Holden’s council race this year, Geb said.

Geb said the contributions were small and totaled about $1,000.

Wooten could not be reached for comment Monday. But in a recent interview, he acknowledged reimbursing his employees for seven contributions to the same public officials: $500 in two contributions to Maron; $250 in one contribution to Takasugi; $149 in two contributions to Plisky and $198 in two contributions to Holden.

Geb said evidence indicates one of the contributions was not a crime.

Wooten, who is also an attorney, has denied breaking the law, saying he did not know that it is illegal to reimburse political contributions and not tell the candidates.

“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 has said.

Marasco could not be reached. His attorney, Louis B. Samonsky Jr., said it is too early to comment. Samonsky said he could not say if Marasco agrees with Wooten’s version of how the reimbursed contributions were made.

Geb said ignorance of the law is no defense in this case. “The issue is not whether you intended to break the law, it’s whether you engaged in the act,” the prosecutor said.

Today’s filing of charges would conclude a five-month money-laundering investigation by Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, which grew out of a broader inquiry into promoters who had competed since last fall to bring big-time gambling to Oxnard.

The Oxnard City Council considered a card casino because of its tax and job benefits, but killed the proposal when faced with strong community opposition and Bradbury’s condemnation of casinos at a June 22 meeting.

In his report to the City Council, Bradbury said card clubs were corrupters of local government. And he offered as evidence the alleged money laundering of promoters he later identified as Wooten and Marasco.

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.

Councilman Plisky said Monday that the real importance of the pending money laundering charges is that it warns other contributors not to abuse the system.

“I think it was a lot of money spent (on the investigation) if all they come up with is six misdemeanors,” Plisky said. “But on the other hand, maybe it is worth it if it scares the rest of them into playing by the rules.”