Washington – Minnesota's biggest donor to President Obama's second inauguration was a 28-year-old who runs a marketing firm that caters to small businesses and who once pleaded guilty to "theft by swindle."
State and national Democratic officials contacted Monday said they had never heard of the man, Johannes Marliem, who donated $225,000 to the president's inauguration. That was just $25,000 less than multinational corporation ExxonMobil and more than twice as much as the state's second-largest donor, Rockefeller relative Alida Messinger, who is Gov. Mark Dayton's ex-wife.
Records released Monday show that Marliem, CEO and founder of the Marliem Marketing Group in Minneapolis, made donations of $100,000 and $125,000 to the Presidential Inaugural Committee in January. The Federal Election Commission also shows Marliem giving $2,500 to the Obama 2012 re-election campaign and raising $70,000 for the presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and several state Democratic committees through joint fundraisers.
The inaugural committee has been disbanded and no former officials could be reached to comment about Marliem's inaugural donations. Speaking about Marliem's presidential campaign fundraising, Brad Woodhouse of the Democratic National Committee said, "The criminal background of this individual did not come up in the routine vetting conducted at the time of the contribution. This contribution would not have been accepted by the [Obama Victory Fund] if these facts had been known at the time. We are investigating this matter and it will be resolved in accordance with our policies."
A White House spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the inauguration committee was a separate operation from the White House.
Reached late Monday night, Marliem said the criminal charge arose from an overdraft involving two of his bank accounts while he was traveling in Indonesia, where he does business. Marliem, who holds a green card, said he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor to avoid a trial on a felony charge that might have led to his deportation.
Asked why he didn't reveal the conviction to Democratic officials, Marliem said, "This is not a criminal matter they should be aware of. I was not stealing anything from anybody."
Hennepin County court records show that in 2009 prosecutors charged Marliem with a felony for writing more than $10,000 in worthless checks. Marliem wrote the checks on a checking account at TCF Bank to deposit in a second checking account he had at Wells Fargo Bank, Assistant County Attorney Tom Arneson said. "He wanted it to appear he had money in both accounts," Arneson said.
