Ex-Fund-Raiser for Dole Will Admit to Fraud

A former top fund-raiser for the Bob Dole campaign has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges of conspiring to make disguised cash contributions to Dole and other candidates.

Under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors announced Wednesday, Boston area businessman Simon C. Fireman, 70, would accept the stiffest punishment ever meted out for such offenses--a six-month jail sentence and a $1-million fine.

His corporation, Aqua-Leisure Industries Inc., would be fined $5 million, and his special assistant at the swimming pool equipment firm, Carol A. Nichols, would serve a period of home confinement with a fine of $7,500 and be placed on probation if the agreement is approved by a federal judge.

The Dole campaign allegedly received $69,000 under the scheme. Other recipients and amounts included the 1993 reelection campaign of Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.), $6,000; the Republican National Committee, $24,000 in 1992; and the Bush-Quayle reelection campaign that same year, $21,000.

Donald K. Stern, U.S. attorney in Boston, where documents detailing the charges were filed in federal court, said there “is no indication that any of the [campaign] committees receiving the illegal contributions participated” with Fireman, Nichols or Aqua-Leisure in the scheme.

The Dole campaign immediately sought to distance itself from Fireman, whose resignation as a Dole national finance vice chairman was confirmed by the campaign last week.

Nelson Warfield, Dole’s spokesman, said that the campaign fully cooperated with the federal investigation and “was not involved in Mr. Fireman’s pattern of improper contributions to both Republicans and Democrats.”

Dole said that all contributions to his campaign from Fireman, his wife and Aqua-Leisure employees had been placed in an escrow account after the allegations surfaced and now will be forwarded to the U.S. Treasury.

Kennedy said that he was “shocked and disappointed” to learn of Fireman’s “violations of campaign finance law” and that his contributions will be returned in accordance with Federal Election Commission requirements.

Prosecutors had accused Fireman of arranging for Nichols to transfer money by wire from Hong Kong to a secret trust in the United States. Some of the funds were deliberately disguised to avoid federal requirements to report cash transactions involving more than $10,000.

Funds then were provided to Aqua-Leisure employees and others, so that the individuals could write checks for amounts that did not exceed federal limits--$1,000 for campaigns and $4,000 for programs, such as those of the RNC.