After more than two weeks of trial, jurors on Monday found former Republican State Senator Frank Artiles guilty of most of his charges in a "ghost candidate" scheme.
Authorities claim Artiles recruited "ghost candidate" Alex Rodriguez to run as a third party candidate to eventually siphon votes from incumbent Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez in the District 37 race in 2020. Rodriguez successfully received over 6,000 votes in the election and Republican candidate Illeana Garcia beat the incumbent by just 32 votes.
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Jurors found Artiles guilty of excessive campaign contributions, specifically six that totaled up to $26,812.92. He was also convicted of conspiring to make campaign contributions and procuring the falsification of a candidate oath form.
Artiles was found not guilty of procuring falsification of a voter registration form.
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"It is clear that the jury understood the State’s evidence which is complex in this public corruption prosecution and determined that Frank Artiles was not only the mastermind of the 'ghost candidate' candidate scandal but violated Florida’s campaign finance and election laws in order to do it," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "These 3rd-degree felony convictions show that the jurors agreed that we cannot tolerate the violation of our laws just to gain a political advantage."
Artiles' attorney said they were disappointed with the verdict and intend to appeal.
“The only thing that Mr. Artiles told him is just change your party affiliation,” Jose Quinon, one of the attorneys representing Artiles, told jurors on Monday during closing arguments.
Defense attorneys admit Artiles paid Rodriguez for an attorney and his daughter's school tuition, but called those payments legal business transactions and not campaign contributions.
Florida law permits ghost candidates but prohibits people making excessive amounts of campaign contributions over $1,000.
“He lend him money to pay the school. It shows you the kind of person he is. Came to him to lend him money to buy parts, lend him money,” said Quinon while trying to defend the money Artiles paid Rodriguez.
On the other hand, prosecutors said those transactions were money Artiles paid Rodriguez to fix the election and lead Republicans to flip a local seat in 2020. Prosecutors asked why would Artiles recommend an attorney if what they were doing was legal.
“What happens if he doesn’t pay Alex Rodriguez? Rodriguez can go and tell everybody, ‘Hey, this is a sham,”' said Timothy VanderGiesen, an Assistant State Attorney.
