Ex-GOP Congressional Candidate Accused of Blowing Donor Cash on Vacations
Omar Navarro, the MAGA internet personality who repeatedly failed to oust Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) from Congress, was slapped with a whopping 43 federal charges on Wednesday for allegedly spending his donors’ money to fund trips to Las Vegas, California’s wine country, and more.
Navarro, 34, is accused of he funneling tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations back to himself—sometimes through a friend and his mom, who are also caught up in the scandal.
Federal prosecutors also announced Wednesday they’d arrested Navarro’s 59-year-old mother, Dora Asghari, and his 34-year-old friend, Zacharias Diamantides-Abel. They’re accused of “conspiring with Navarro to convert campaign donations to personal use” and face a combined eight counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy each.
The feds on Wednesday unsealed a 45-page indictment that revealed a laundry list of charges against Navarro: 13 counts of wire fraud, 26 counts of falsification of records, three counts of prohibited use of campaign funds, and one count of conspiracy.
A Perennial Congressional Candidate Beloved by Trump World Was Just Arrested on Stalking Charges
Navarro, Asghari, and Diamantides-Abel are staring down prison sentences that could be as long as 20 years if convicted, the DOJ said.
The failed congressional candidate is accused of getting creative with how he ciphered his campaign funds—going as far as creating a sham charity called the “United Latino Foundation” to embezzle money from his campaign to personal accounts between 2018 and 2020. In other instances, he’d allegedly cut checks from his campaign to Diamantides-Abel and Asghari, who’d deposit the money into their accounts, withdraw it, and return it to Navarro.
The feds allege that Navarro “deposited over $100,000 in cash into his personal accounts, even though he had no other source of income aside from the campaign funds.” Those deposits came soon after Diamantides-Abel and Asghari deposited donor money into their accounts, the DOJ said.
Navarro spent the money on vacations and trips to right-wing events throughout the country, some of which he wrote off as campaign expenses to the Federal Election Commission, prosecutors alleged. He’s also accused of using donor money to pay private attorneys to represent him when he pleaded guilty to felony stalking in 2020
Navarro lost each of his four races against Waters for her congressional seat representing south Los Angeles—regularly receiving less than 25 percent of the vote. While his attempts to join Congress have repeatedly flopped, they grew Navarro’s online following as he positioned himself as a MAGA personality. In one failed bid, the Donald Trump ally and ex-adviser Roger Stone was briefly his campaign manager.
Navarro’s growing presence as a media personality appeared to spike his donation numbers. The Los Angeles Times reports that he pulled in a measly $2,846 in his 2016 campaign, but brought in $1.17 million in 2018 and $731,118 in 2020. He raised $85,997 in 2022.
Citing filings with the FEC, the Times reported that Navarro named himself campaign treasurer for each campaign.
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