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Frank Artiles, a former Florida state representative and senator, was charged with felonies in connection to a scam candidate scheme in Miami Dade County. There was a general question asked about the legality of fake campaigns over in politics, and one answer mentioned this case. Commenters seemed to suspect that Mr. Artiles is not charged because a "fake campaign" would be illegal (on what counts? Lying in politics?) but because more specific campaign finance and election laws were violated in the process. I looked up the case, F-21-004768-B / 13-2021-CF-004768-B000-XX, in the publicly searchable case database of Miami Dade.

The case, which is pending, lists the following charges:

CAM CONTR/ACC 2>CONT

ELECTION CODE/FALSE

VOTER REG/FLS INFO

While "Voter reg[istration]/f[a]ls[e] info" seems self explanatory, the other ones are not, to me. What precisely has Mr. Artiles been charged with?

ohwilleke
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Peter - Reinstate Monica
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2 Answers2

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"CAM CONTR/ACC 2>CONT" refers to F.S. 106.08(7)(B), under which Artiles is charged with "making or receiving two or more campaign contributions over or in excess of the limits," as well as engaging in a conspiracy to do so.

"ELECTION CODE/FALS" refers to F.S. 104.011(1), under which Artiles is charged with "swearing or affirming falsely to any oath or affirmation, or willfully procuring another person to swear or affirm falsely to an oath or affirmation, in connection with or arising out of voting or elections"

"VOTER REG/FLS INFO" refers to F.S. 104.011(1), under which Artiles is charged with aiding and abetting another to "submit any false voter registration information."

More information about the factual basis for the charges is available in the arrest warrant here.

bdb484
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6

Ballotpedia describes the alleged crimes as:

  1. one count of false swearing in connection with voting or elections
  2. one count of making or receiving campaign contributions over or in excess of limits
  3. one count of conspiracy to make or receive two or more campaign contributions over or in excess of limits.

It is hard to pinpoint which of the three is exactly which. To the best of my deduction, it appears that charge 2 (campaign contributions in excess of limits) would be under Cam Contr/Acc, as that seems to match best with Campaign Contributions & Accounting. Charge 3 appears to be most likely the Voter Registration/Falsification of Information, while the conspiracy most likely is the Election Code/False [Swearing]

Trish
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