How a Mexican Billionaire Gamed the U.S. Election System

Now you don’t even need a U.S. passport to try and buy an American election. Just don’t get caught.

Jose Sususmo Azano Matsura, a Mexican construction magnate, is accused by the federal government of illegally funneling over half a million bucks to political candidates in southern California.

Azano wanted to build political clout in order to remake San Diego’s waterfront into an energetic “Miami West,”The Cable reported this week. But the way he sought to buy support was made possible by a landmark Supreme Court decision that transformed the nation’s campaign finance laws:

What’s unique about the allegations is that Azano’s money was funnelled through a “Super PAC,” a political fundraising vehicle born out of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010. The ruling paved the way for Super PACs to spend unlimited sums of money for candidates with only limited reporting requirements. Although Super PACs have been linked to other campaign finance abuses, a foreign national has never been accused of using one to hide his idenity [sic]. “We are not aware of another example of a similar case,” Peter Carr, a public relations officer at the Justice Department, told The Cable. “Super PACs are a new vehicle for political spending.”