A Torrance man who was a Republican candidate for a Los Angeles County congressional seat in four elections, and his mother, pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges for their roles in a scheme to funnel tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash for their personal use.
Omar Navarro, 36, entered a plea to a single wire fraud count for defrauding his own election campaign, and is set to be sentenced on Oct. 20, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“As candidate for Congress, defendant knew and understood that campaign funds raised by him and others for his campaign were restricted to supporting his election efforts and could not be used for the candidate’s … own personal use or enjoyment,” according to his plea agreement.
Despite this, prosecutors say, Navarro conspired with his mother, Dora Asghari, and a friend to convert campaign funds for their personal use.
Asghari, 61, of Torrance, pleaded guilty Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles to a charge of lying to FBI investigators during an interview in September 2020. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2026.
Attorneys for Navarro and his mother could not immediately be reached for comment.
Navarro unsuccessfully ran in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 against longtime Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters to represent south Los Angeles County residents in California’s 43rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
An indictment made public in September 2023 outlines a scheme in which Navarro made payments from his campaign to various individuals — including his mother and friend Zacharias Diamantides-Abel, 36, of Long Beach — and then directed the transfer of cash back to himself for personal use.
Navarro used campaign funds to pay for personal expenses, including trips to Las Vegas and wine country, as well as two criminal defense attorneys who helped him when he pleaded guilty to felony stalking in 2020. According to the indictment, Navarro later falsely reported these expenditures as campaign expenses to the Federal Election Commission.
Federal prosecutors said Asghari and Diamantides-Abel concealed Navarro’s misdirection of campaign funds by frequently cashing the checks rather than depositing them into their personal bank accounts. If they deposited the check, they often withdrew the funds shortly thereafter to share with Navarro, the indictment states.
In total, from December 2017 to June 2020, Diamantides-Abel and Asghari received $49,260 and $58,625, respectively, from Navarro’s campaign, according to checks he wrote or caused to be written to them. According to the indictment, Asghari also created a shell company to facilitate her receipt of these campaign payments and transfers back to Navarro and his own shell company.
From January 2018 through July 1, 2020, Navarro deposited over $100,000 in cash into his personal accounts, even though he had no other source of income aside from the campaign funds, and he frequently made deposits after Diamantides-Abe or Asghari cashed campaign checks, court papers show.
Navarro formed a sham charity called the United Latino Foundation as another way to embezzle funds from his campaign for his personal use, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Diamantides-Abel pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge last month and was placed in a diversion program.
The 45-page indictment charged Navarro with 13 counts of wire fraud, 26 counts of falsification of records and three counts of prohibited use of campaign funds. Asghari was charged with six counts of wire fraud. Diamantides-Abel was charged with two counts of wire fraud. All three defendants were charged with one count of conspiracy.