The mysterious committee behind a controversial mailer in an upcoming Fresno City Council special election has been forced into the spotlight.

One day after the Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz launched an investigation, Fresno Future Forward filed paperwork with the city clerk Tuesday afternoon. Janz said the group is now in compliance.

But, who is behind the dark money committee and exactly where the money is coming from won’t be officially known until the end of July.

Janz sent a letter to the treasurer of the committee, imposing a $1,000 sanction for filing its campaign forms late.

The recipient of the letter, Riley Moore, did not respond to messages left by GV Wire.

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Controversial Mailer

The committee sent a mailer to southeast Fresno voters disparaging city council candidate Brandon Vang — alleging he committed statutory rape more than 30 years ago.

Vang, who is also an elected Sanger Unified school board trustee, vehemently denied the allegations.

He is one of five candidates running for the vacant District 5 city council seat, with the special election set for Tuesday, March 18.

Fresno Unified Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, nonprofit leader Jose Leon Barraza, Paul Condon, and write-in candidate Nickolas Wildstar are also running. They are competing to fill the seat vacated by Luis Chavez, who won election to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors in November.

Jonasson Rosas is married to Chavez and previously succeeded him on the Fresno Unified board representing the Roosevelt High School region.

A candidate needs a majority vote to win the election outright. If not, the top two finishers will advance to another special election at a date to be determined by the city council.

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Forms Missing, Now Filed

The Fresno Future Forward filing — Form 496, the independent expenditure report —  showed the group spent $4,439.51 on “mail.” The form does not indicate where the money came from or where the money was spent.

The group also filed paperwork (Form 410) on Tuesday to officially establish the committee.

According to the campaign filing schedule set by the Fair Political Practices Commission, Fresno Future Forward does not need to file where it received its money and how it spent it until July 31 (Form 460).

The filing schedule does require the Form 496 — reporting of spending over $1,000 — to be submitted within 24 hours. Fresno Future Forward listed its spending on March 4, and did not file its Form 496 until today.

Janz said his office issued one subpoena to UPS, which is now moot. The mailing address listed on the flyer is a UPS Store in downtown Fresno. His office is now considering retracting the subpoena.

A second subpoena was about to be served on Professional Print & Mail, the local company that printed and mailed the campaign literature. That subpoena was pulled once Fresno Future Forward filed its documents.