The casino owner, Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, known as Pepe, jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 and disappeared, and has since been linked to violence and corruption in Mexico. A State Department cable in 2009 said he was suspected of orchestrating the assassination of a business rival and making illegal campaign donations to Mexican officials.
When The New York Times asked the Obama campaign early Monday about the
Cardonas, officials said they were unaware of the brother in Mexico.
Later in the day, the campaign said it was refunding the money raised by
the family, which totaled more than $200,000.
As recently as January of last year, one of Mr. Cardona’s brothers in
Chicago, Carlos Rojas Cardona, arranged for the former chairman of the
Iowa Democratic Party to seek a pardon from the governor for Pepe
Cardona, according to prosecutors in that state. None was forthcoming.
Last fall, Carlos Cardona and another brother in Chicago, Alberto Rojas
Cardona, began raising money for the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
The Cardona brothers, who have no prior history of political giving,
appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the world of Democratic
fund-raising, Democratic activists said. (Continues here)
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