FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRM

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1997 (202) 514-2008

TDD (202) 514-1888

FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN OAKAR IS CHARGED, AGREES TO PLEAD GUILTY

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced

today that Mary Rose Oakar, former Member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from Ohio, has been charged with two federal
misdemeanors in an information filed today in the U.S. District
Court for the District of Columbia, and that Oakar has agreed to
plead guilty to the charges.

The information charged Oakar, 57, of Cleveland, who served

in Congress from 1977 to 1993, with violating the conspiracy
statute, Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, based on her
efforts to conceal campaign contributions made in others' names
and an excessive campaign contribution to her 1992 reelection
campaign, and causing the making and concealing of campaign
contributions in others' names to her campaign, in violation of
the Federal Election Campaign Act, Title 2, United States Code,
Sections 441f and 437g(d).

The information alleges that from about May, 1992 through

September, 1992, Oakar and others conspired to make a total of
$16,000 in campaign contributions in others' names, and to have
$9,000 of that $16,000 made as an excessive campaign
contribution, to her Congressional reelection campaign. The
Federal Election Campaign Act prohibits any person from
contributing more than $1,000 to a candidate for federal office
in any primary or general election. Oakar is charged with having
contacted people to see whether those people would be willing to
allow their names, or the names of people they knew, to be used
as contributors to Oakar's campaign, even though the people
contacted would not be providing the funds for those
contributions. Oakar is also charged with causing the making of
the $16,000 in contributions in other people's names, and
conspiring to cause a total of $9,000 as an excessive
contribution, to her campaign.

The Federal Election Campaign Act also requires the

principal campaign committee for each candidate for federal
office to file reports listing the amounts of contributions and
the identities of the contributors. Oakar is charged with having
sought to mislead, misinform, and provide false information to
the Federal Election Commission about the identities of certain
persons who made campaign contributions, as well as the amounts
of contributions made by certain persons, to her 1992 campaign.
 Oakar faces a maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment and
a $200,000 fine. Under the terms of the plea agreement filed
with the court, Oakar has agreed to plead guilty to the charges
and to pay a $32,000 fine -- twice the amount of the funds
involved in the $16,000 illegal campaign contributions -- and
will seek a sentence of probation.

In a related matter, the Department of Justice has concluded

an agreement with Oakar's codefendant, Joseph DeMio, who was
charged in one count of the pending indictment against Oakar.
Under the terms of that agreement, DeMio, who acknowledged that
he allowed his and his wife's names to be used in connection with
contributions to the 1992 Oakar campaign, is to submit to the
jurisdiction of the Federal Election Commission in any compliance
proceedings against him in connection with the 1992 Oakar
campaign. The government will move to dismiss the charge against
DeMio upon his complete fulfillment of all obligations in his
plea agreement that relate to FEC compliance proceedings.

Oakar and DeMio were initially charged in a seven-count

felony indictment on February 22, 1995, in the U.S. District
Court for the District of Columbia. After extensive pretrial
challenges to the indictment, the District Court dismissed the
first two counts of the indictment, which respectively alleged
that Oakar had written a $16,000 insufficient funds check on her
account at the former House Bank in the House of Representatives
and had made a false statement concerning at least $50,000 in
liabilities on her 1991 Financial Disclosure Statement filed with
the House of Representatives. The District Court also struck
portions of Count Four, which alleged Oakar's conspiring to
defraud the Federal Election Commission and to make false
statements within the jurisdiction of the Commission. (Count
Four was the only count in which DeMio was charged.) After the
government appealed the dismissal of Count Two and the striking
of portions of Count Four, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the District Court's
decision on Count Two but reversed the District Court's decision
on Count Four.

Federal prosecutors said the agreements with Oakar and DeMio

constitute an appropriate and fair resolution of the pending
charges against them.

The information and agreements stem from the Department of

Justice's investigation of the House of Representatives Bank.
This case is being handled by a Senior Litigation Counsel from
the Fraud Section, Criminal Division, who was part of the
Criminal Division's House Bank Task Force, by a Senior Trial
Attorney from the Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division,
and by Special Agents of the FBI, Washington, D.C.

The Task Force was formed in December, 1992 to continue the

work of the preliminary inquiry into the House Bank that Malcolm
R. Wilkey, retired judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit, conducted as a special counsel to
the Attorney General in 1992.
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