In 2021 as Council At-Large Brian DePeña was running against Acting Mayor Kendrys Vasquez, DePena loaned his election committee half of the total $202,168 the campaign raised that calendar year, according to state records.

US Attorney Leah Foley alleges at least $90,000 of the candidate loans can be directly tracked back to Economic Injury Disaster funds issued to DePena by the Small Business Administration during the pandemic, including one critical September 2021 candidate loan when his campaign account was overdrawn by $15,442.

DePena beat Vasquez by seven percentage points. Vasquez raised $207,885 for the 2021 campaign, he donated or loaned only $1,200 to his own campaign in 2021.

If it wasn’t for the alleged covid loan money, DePena would have been outspent almost 2 to 1 by Vasquez.

11,694 votes were cast in mayoral election with a 28% turnout.

“Bank records reflect that, in or around September 2021, DEPENA used approximately $90,000 traceable to the EIDL funds for his mayoral campaign,” the charging documents allege, first published by the Valley Patriot.

The US Attorney alleges DePena made six different loans ranging from $10,000-$25,000 to his campaign from August through October leading up to election day on November 2, 2021:

8/16/21 $10,000

9/10/21 $10000

9/14/21 $25,000

9/16/21 $10,000

10/20/21 $25,000

10/27/21 $10,000

Typically, DePena would transfer from from one personal account into a second personal account before providing loan to his political committee.

DePena also loaned his committee an additional $10,000 after election day and $32,112 in early January 2022.

“Transferred another $25,000 (traceable to the EIDL funds) from his personal DCU account no. -1285-1 to his personal DCU account no. -1285-2, and then caused a check drawn on DEPENA’s personal DCU account no. -1285-2 in the amount of $25,000, payable to “CTE Brian Depena” and containing the memo ‘Loan’ to be deposited into the Committee to Elect Brian DePena TD Bank checking account,” writes US Attorney Foley.