A poster advertises a fundraiser in October in support of Keisha Lance Bottoms’s mayoral bid.
Photo: Keisha Lance Bottoms for Mayor
On November 7, Atlantans will go to the polls to decide who will succeed Mayor Kasim Reed as the city’s leader.
The nonpartisan, 12-way race is unpredictable; conservative Mary Norwood is widely expected to make a December runoff, but who will face her is up in the air. The Bernie Sanders-backed progressive candidate and former state Sen. Vincent Fort is vying to be Norwood’s challenger alongside a number of city council alumni who are more allied with Reed’s pro-business politics.
One of those candidates, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has been endorsed by Reed and benefited in the home stretch from a gusher of corporate fundraising — much of it flowing in a way that allows it to get around the ordinary limits of giving.
Procurement corruption has cast a long shadow over the mayoral race. In September, the FBI raided the offices of a city vendor and the city’s top purchasing office pled guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for millions of dollars of city contracts. Earlier this month, Bottoms returned more than $25,000 in contributions from one of the city contractors at the center of the investigation.
The legal contribution limit for an individual to a mayoral candidate in the general election is $2,600. But a number of major contractors that do business with Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport — the world’s busiest airport and an entity the city oversees — used shell companies and other means to boost their donations to Bottoms into the tens of thousands. The concession contracts, to operate fast food restaurants and other franchises, are a multibillion-dollar opportunity for vendors.
Individuals associated with Miami-based Master ConcessionAir (previously known as World Wide Concessions) have given $23,525 to Bottoms’s campaign. Much of this giving was done through other entities. For instance, on Bottoms’s finance disclosures, you’ll see a $2,500 donation from the Florida-based Concessions Development Group. Lest you think this entity is unrelated to ConcessionAir, you can see that one of the people it’s registered under is Jose Alberni. Alberni lists himself as a managing director at ConcessionsAir.
Individuals involved with the company in the past previously came under investigation for “allegedly receiving $1.7 million from a Miami airport vendor to meet federal minority-business requirements while not actually opening a restaurant,” as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes, although no charges were ever filed in the case.
World Wide Concessions Chief Executive Peter Amaro Jr. originally appeared to give twice to Bottoms by changing his first name from Peter to Pedro for the second contribution, as well as adding a digit to his address. Remember that the legal contribution limit for the general election is $2,600, and Amaro gave $5,100. The donations were first flagged on Twitter by Nathaniel Horadam, a master’s student at Georgia Tech. In the amended finance report released Thursday, the second donation is amended to Patricia, his wife. Amaro’s company manages over two dozen franchises at the Atlanta airport, including a Starbucks and Chick-fil-A.
In Thursday’s disclosure, Carlos Aguilera, the company’s director of food and beverage operations, pitched in an additional $2,500 — but left out his employer information.
Master Concession Air/World Wide Concessions did not respond to a request for comment.
Another airport vendor, OTG Management, surpassed the $2,600 limit by giving directly as OTG Management and also as OTG Management EWR, which shares the exact same address. OTG Management has not at this time responded to a request for comment.
Darrell Anderson is a limousine company owner and long-time family friend of Reed who won a shuttle contract at the airport that lasted four years (he was also an investor in the company Reed’s father ran). Anderson himself has given $1,000 to Bottoms. But his company A-National Limousine Service has given $2,500 collectively between two donations this year. Through a network of other shell companies that Anderson owns or share the same address as A-National Limousine Service, he collectively gave almost $27,000. That’s 10 times the legal limit of what an individual can give.
In the most recent disclosure, released Thursday, Bottoms returned $5,600 of those contributions, $1,000 from Atlanta Airport Shuttle, $2,000 from Atlanta Metropolitan Auto, $2,600 from New Day Productions.
Bottoms is publicly thanking some of these donors. On Thursday, she took to Twitter to cite the support of Giovanni di Palma, the owner of Antico Foods — which has a presence at Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Antico gave $2,600 to Bottoms’s campaign in September; di Palma himself gave $2,600 the same month. Lioni Latticini Mozzarella & Specialty Foods, which has, in the past, served as their cheese supplier, pitched in $2,600 as well.
In 2015, the Labor Department ordered Antico to pay nearly $300,000 in back wages after it withheld overtime from dozens of employees.
The Thursday disclosures also show a $2,500 donation from Florida-based Advanced Consulting Service. This firm is registered to Christopher Korge, who founded NewsLink, a firm that is bidding on contracts to open a new shop at the airport. Korge previously gave $2,000 in January. A phone call to Korge & Korge LLP confirmed that Christopher also owns SFB Consulting, which gave $2,500 in the latest disclosure.
The campaign finance report from early October also reveals donations from other city contractors and, interestingly, from a number of individuals living in New Orleans. One donor to Bottoms, Blair Boutte of B3 Consulting, owns a bail bond company in Louisiana cited in a recent report over abusive bail bond practices. Blair’s Bail Bonds of New Orleans is facing a lawsuit for allegedly kidnapping and extorting a man for money he claims he didn’t know that he owed.
Horadam posited that the flow of Louisiana cash to Bottoms may relate to scheme to trade donors with Desiree Charbonnet, the business-friendly mayoral candidate running in New Orleans. Charbonnet’s campaign has received an influx of donations from Atlanta contractors, including firms and individuals who have donated to Bottoms, suggesting donors backing each candidate have found a way to elect two establishment-backed politicians while essentially doubling the amount they can legally donate.
Top photo: A poster advertises a fundraiser in October support of Keisha Lance Bottoms’s mayoral bid.
This is great reporting! Have the local papers covered this? What is their angle?
I prefer that Bottoms stop running her campaign as though she is Reed himself. She is speaking just like Reed in all her ads, campaigns and debate. Bottoms all those mix-match children and using Reed being his portege should be unacceptable in the eyes of voters. Not trying to persuade voters to turn their cheeck in the other directions but don’t let “Colorism” make a decision for you. Keep Atlanta Black again shows hatred for other races. Reed ran the city in a corrupted manner he still is not clear in the bribery case. However, if Reed had nothing to hide than it was useless to send millions upon millions of blank papers attached to the truth. If Reed was not involved with the bribery case than he would comply with the truth. I believe that he was hiding from the truth and covering his tracks. Reed made promises like Bottoms in the debate to increase police officers wages but decreased their pay and chose to buy a Ferris Wheel, Streetcar and Falcons Stadium. Voters need to consider the truth behind Bottoms advertisements for pay increase to police officers, teachers etc.., those were the exact promises spoken by Reed. Bottoms will let Reed run her office. Reed can dominate Bottoms but not the other candidates (men) and if she wins he will still control her every move like a puppet. Although I like Bottoms she is rather weak in terms of running the city. In other words, Bottoms cannot make decisions without the advise of Reed as Mayor of Atlanta.
(cynicism alert)
“Odd contributions”…is putting it mildly….guess the only corruption that matters is Trump colluded with Russian…..
signed- Donna Brazile
I prefer that Bottoms stop running her campaign as though she is Reed himself. She is speaking just like Reed in all her ads, campaigns and debate. Bottoms as Reed’s portege should be unacceptable in the eyes of voters. Not trying to persuade voters to turn their cheeck in the other directions but don’t let “Colorism” make a decision for you. Keep Atlanta Black again shows hatred for other races. Reed ran the city in a corrupted manner he still is not clear in the bribery case. However, if Reed had nothing to hide than it was useless to send millions upon millions of blank papers attached to the truth. If Reed was not involved with the bribery case than he would comply with the truth. I believe that he was hiding from the truth and covering his tracks. Reed made promises like Bottoms in the debate to increase police officers wages but decreased their pay and chose to buy a Ferris Wheel. Voters need to consider the truth behind Bottoms advertisements for pay increase to police officers, teachers etc.., those were the exact promises spoken by Reed. Bottoms will let Reed run her office. Reed can dominate Bottoms but not the other candidates (men) and if she wins he will still control her every move like a puppet. Although I like Bottoms she is rather weak in terms of running the city. In other words, Bottoms cannot make decisions without the advise of Reed as Mayor of Atlanta.
Yup, something smells rotten in Starling City.
Now in Seattle, it is the obvious corporate criminals, with Amazon, Comcast and Century Link giving outrageous sums to form US Attorney, Jenny Durkan, who stands against any seirous investigation to exploding housing prices, in case they may reflect badly on the money launderers involved, you see.
And Durkan, once led a 3-year investigation into the demise of Washington Mutual — the bank which was borged by Chase after the global economic meltdown — and she couldn’t come up with a SINGLE prosecution. Meanwhile, Durkan jailed several young people in a most unethical manner in solitary confinement, ostensibly to make them give up someone else, when there wasn’t even any palpable connection!
Follow the money. Theres a bigger story coming. Your on the right trail.
Procurement corruption has cast a long shadow over the mayoral race. In September, the FBI raided the offices of a city vendor and the city’s top purchasing office pled guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for millions of dollars of city contracts. Earlier this month, Lance-Bottoms returned more than $25,000 in contributions from one of the city contractors at the center of the investigation.
CORRUPTION is the practice of rejecting one’s alignment and allegiance to the American concept of public ownership and “e pluribus unum” and should be PROSECUTED AS TREASON.
Certainly it should at least be grounds for instant disqualification.
Amateur reporters doing a rushed story.
True PROFESSIONALS would have found the link between these donations and Putin and produced a story that the rest of the media would have trampled each other to pick up.
I’m sure THEY think that this is an important story, but without that Russian connection (doesn’t matter how indirect, ludicrous, and unsubstantiated that link may seem, if one of those companies uses Kaspersky software on one of its computers, distributes ‘Russian influenced’ newspapers, or purchases supplies that somewhere up the chain can be linked to Russia, that’s all you need) its going to be (rightfully) seen as important as just another fender bender on the roads of Atlanta, everyone so used to it, and sees it as part of the routine, so it doesn’t seem like news.
Jeez, guys, this is raucous stuff.
Great reporting, but how do we stop these women?
I have to shower after reading this.
Lance-Bottoms, really? You cannot make this stuff up!
I haven’t raised any funds and don’t feel a reason to besides getting corrupted.. #alexb4mayor
https://alexb4mayor.blogspot.com
I thought the Hillary fans on this site were OK with odd contributions?
“Bernie routinely portrayed me as a corrupt corporatist.”
– Crooked Hillary
Goldman Sachs – $500,000 – Access
Boeing $900,000 – State Dept. clearance for $29 billion arms U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia
Chagoury Group $6,000,000 – HRC delayed designating Nigeria’s Boko Haram as terrorist organization because of Chagoury Group’s investments
Giustra, Frank (Canadian mining magnate) – $31,300,000 State soft-peddled ISIS threat allowing Lafarge maintain its operations in ISIS-controlled territory
Monsanto $5,000,000 – Advocacy for GMOs worldwide
Walmart, Inc. $5,000,000 – HRC pressured Indian government to open up India to Walmart, opposed by India’s small retailers.
Corning, Inc. $150,000 – Clinton arranged for international access for the New York-based firm.
Another Clintonian republican who pretends that she is something else.
Looks like blatant criminality.
Good work. When people donot take care of their home localities, they deserve what they get. 2015, 2016 crime rates have taken a serious increase. When the poverty rate in some communities are 25-29% — higher is not recorded by the census— you get what you voted for. At some point, people are going to get it. Because you always pay for it. The old No free Lunch
Mary Norwood is still the out-and-out favorite to be the next mayor. According to the AJC, despite her being an arch-conservative Trump supporter, she is the highest-polling candidate among Atlanta’s black population and even among voters describing themselves as “very liberal”.
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/07/19/poll-shows-why-norwood-is-in-pole-position-for-atlanta-mayors-race/
This needs some explanation.
The explanation is that she’s not an arch conservative Trump supporter. That would be the reason why.
I heard her say she voted for Hillary. Not sure where the Trump thing came from.
I prefer that Bottoms stop running her campaign as though she is Reed himself. She is speaking just like Reed in all her ads, campaigns and debate. Bottoms all those mix-match children and using Reed being his portege should be unacceptable in the eyes of voters. Not trying to persuade voters to turn their cheeck in the other directions but don’t let “Colorism” make a decision for you. Keep Atlanta Black again shows hatred for other races. Reed ran the city in a corrupted manner he still is not clear in the bribery case. However, if Reed had nothing to hide than it was useless to send millions upon millions of blank papers attached to the truth. If Reed was not involved with the bribery case than he would comply with the truth. I believe that he was hiding from the truth and covering his tracks. Reed made promises like Bottoms in the debate to increase police officers wages but decreased their pay and chose to buy a Ferris Wheel, Streetcar and Falcons Stadium. Voters need to consider the truth behind Bottoms advertisements for pay increase to police officers, teachers etc.., those were the exact promises spoken by Reed. Bottoms will let Reed run her office. Reed can dominate Bottoms but not the other candidates (men) and if she wins he will still control her every move like a puppet. Although I like Bottoms she is rather weak in terms of running the city. In other words, Bottoms cannot make decisions without the advise of Reed as Mayor of Atlanta.
Until money is out of politics this will continue.
Calling the rest of the field “more allied with Reed’s pro business policies” simply isnt true. And calling Norwood a “conservative” isn’t something the Atlanta Progressive News did when it endorsed her… KLB is Kasim Reed and the developers’ candidate. That part ia true, at least.
They endorsed Vincent Fort and Norwood was the second choice.
Thanks for the coverage intercept.