Nathan Fletcher's $3000 triplet flip-flop fine

Fernando Aguerre, cofounder with his brother Santiago of Reef, the world-famous flip-flop maker, is famed for knowing his way around the worlds of fashion, sports, and high-dollar politics.

"Inspired by the beautiful women of the beaches in South America, the brothers saw an opportunity to introduce the surf market to an exotic element that they called Miss Reef, who has become a global icon of the surfing community," notes the Reef website. "Since then, the vibrant culture, imagery, and beautiful Reef girls of Latin America have been a part of Reef’s DNA.

The Argentina-born Aguerre brothers subsequently sold the company, and Fernando became president of the San Diego–based International Surfing Association, which has lobbied to make the sport an Olympic game in 2024.

"As we see more surfers, we see a better world," Aguerre says on the association’s website. "A world made of people who know how to take care of their natural resources, who enjoy the ride of life, that know that in front of the immensity of the oceans, we are all just human beings with much in common, and all wanting to pursue our happiness in a peaceful world."

Fernando Aguerre has also been a major financial backer of Democratic causes, giving $35,800 to the reelection bid of Barack Obama and $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee Services Corporation, according to federal disclosure filings. He's also come up with $2000 for Democratic congressman Scott Peters and $2300 to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.

But when it came to funneling money into Republican-turned-Democrat Nathan Fletcher's 2013 San Diego mayoral campaign committee, he slipped up, according to a stipulation reached with San Diego's city ethics commission.

“On August 22, 2013, Aguerre made a $1,000 contribution to the Committee for the special mayoral election," recounts a stipulation approved by the ethics commission and posted online last week.

"On October 5, 2013, Aguerre made three additional contributions of $1,000 each to the Committee for the same election. Pursuant to Aguerre’s instructions, his assistant made the contributions electronically using Aguerre’s personal credit card but identified the contributors as Respondent’s three children who were 16 years old (triplets) at the time."

As it turned out, says the commission document, that wasn't really the case — an important detail, because city law limited maximum contributions to $1000 per donor for each election.

"Notwithstanding any plan that may have existed for Aguerre’s children to reimburse Aguerre for these contributions, and despite the fact that the children had access to funds in a family trust, the children ultimately never used their funds to reimburse Aguerre or otherwise make any contributions to the Fletcher Committee."

The committee subsequently filed disclosure reports with the city clerk's office that failed to reveal Aguerre himself as the true source of the Fletcher funding.

How the violations ultimately came to light is not explained in the ethics commission document, which says that those named in the case included Fletcher personally and his campaign's accounting firm Scott & Cronin of Encinitas and that they "have fully cooperated with the Ethics Commission’s investigation."

Ex-assemblyman Fletcher — now an executive with Qualcomm, the company founded by his billionaire political mentor Irwin Jacobs — was made to personally fork over the $3000 penalty.

"This amount must be paid by check or money order made payable to the City Treasurer no later than April 3, 2015," notes the stipulation.