Whittemore’s request to remain free on appeal is denied
Former power broker Harvey Whittemore’s request to remain free pending an appeal was denied by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday.
Whittemore will have to surrender to federal prison authorities on Aug. 6 to start serving a two-year prison term for breaking campaign contributions laws.
Attorneys Dominic Gentile and Vincent Savarese requested in court papers that Whittemore’s surrender be put off because he deserved to remain free while he appeals his conviction.
A Reno jury last year found Whittemore guilty of unlawfully funneling more than $133,000 in contributions to the campaign of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Reid wasn’t accused of wrongdoing in the case.
Whittemore’s attorneys believed the U.S. Supreme Court was considering a case that might undermine the validity of his convictions. But the high court’s eventual ruling this year did not have that kind of impact on Whittemore’s case.
Whittemore, 61, an attorney and onetime influential lobbyist, was convicted of giving money to 29 family members and employees of his former company, Wingfield Nevada Group, and then using them as “conduits” for contributions to Reid’s 2007 re-election committee to skirt federal campaign laws.
Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @WesJuhl.
