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| James Tong with his lawyer outside of the Alameda County courthouse. |
James Tong, 74, of Fremont, California, was sentenced Jan. 24 by U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar of the Northern District of California.
A federal jury convicted Tong on Oct. 8, 2019, of two counts of making contributions to a federal campaign in the names of other individuals.
According to the evidence presented at trial, in 2012 and 2013 Tong made $38,000 in conduit contributions to the initial and reelection campaigns of Swalwell who was running for the US House of Representatives.
Swalwell, a former Alameda County prosecutor and Dublin City Council member, sought the 2020 Democratic nomination for president but in July he dropped out of the presidential race.
In a statement issued Friday, Swallwell said: “Justice was served today for a campaign supporter of mine who violated the law. From the moment I was notified that my campaign was a victim of fraud, I assisted the FBI to obtain the records they needed to conduct their investigation. All the donations to my campaign, in this case, were subsequently donated to local charities.”
Tong provided envelopes of cash to his bank manager and another business associate and directed them to give the cash to individuals in the community, who then used Tong’s cash to write checks in their own names to the campaign for Swalwell.
Tong leveraged financial obligations and the implied loss of business opportunities to induce his bank manager and business associate to distribute cash in the community to be donated. The network of straw donors included dozens of conduits, including at least one foreign national who was not eligible to make donations to federal elections.
Tong also directed his middlemen to conceal the scheme by instructing the straw donors not to deposit the cash; and he later directed one of the middlemen to withhold information from the FBI after he was interviewed.
As part of the sentence, Judge Tigar found that Tong obstructed justice when he told his middlemen to not deposit cash given to them. Judge Tigar also sentenced the defendant to a one-year period of supervised release and a $380,000 fine.
Tong provided envelopes of cash to his bank manager and another business associate and directed them to give the cash to individuals in the community, who then used Tong’s cash to write checks in their own names to the campaign for Swalwell.
Tong leveraged financial obligations and the implied loss of business opportunities to induce his bank manager and business associate to distribute cash in the community to be donated. The network of straw donors included dozens of conduits, including at least one foreign national who was not eligible to make donations to federal elections.
Tong also directed his middlemen to conceal the scheme by instructing the straw donors not to deposit the cash; and he later directed one of the middlemen to withhold information from the FBI after he was interviewed.
As part of the sentence, Judge Tigar found that Tong obstructed justice when he told his middlemen to not deposit cash given to them. Judge Tigar also sentenced the defendant to a one-year period of supervised release and a $380,000 fine.
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