Ex-Portland developer gets 4 months in prison, $100,000 fine for illegal campaign donations

Former local developer Michael Liberty was sentenced to four months in prison and fined $100,000 Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland for federal campaign finance violations.

Liberty, once one of the most prominent businessmen in Maine, had pleaded guilty in November to violating campaign finance laws in 2011 by using nine family members and employees to contribute $22,500 to a presidential campaign and then reimbursing them, which allowed him to circumvent the $2,500 limit on personal donations. The campaign has not been named, but Liberty personally donated to Republican Mitt Romney during his primary run.

Federal Senior District Judge D. Brock Hornby told Liberty he had committed “the quintessential white-collar crime” and it required “punishment that stings.”

Liberty rose from an impoverished childhood in Gray to financing projects that included the Chandler’s Wharf condominiums on the city’s waterfront and the 100 Middle Street office building, which has tenants that now include the federal prosecutors who asked Hornby to send Liberty to prison Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.pressherald.com/2017/08/09/former-portland-developer-gets-four-months-100000-fine-for-campaign-finance-violations/