Ex-Enron and Sempra exec kicks in for Trump

It's no secret that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is a little low on campaign cash at the moment, but some well-heeled San Diego County GOP contributors are coming to the rescue.

Such is the word from the Union-Tribune's Diane Bell, who reports that mega-millionaire diet maven Jenny Craig is teaming up with Iraqi-American Madeleine Pickens, a Del Mar–based ex-wife of Texas oil billionaire Boone Pickens, to stage a July 13 Trump Victory gala, to be cohosted by ex–U-T publisher Doug Manchester and his Russian-born second wife Geniya at an undisclosed location in North County.

The big party comes just in time to bolster Trump's paltry San Diego County money standing; finance disclosures for May filed earlier this week reveal that the campaign committee for Democrat Hillary Clinton, long a prodigious fundraiser here due to her friendship with Qualcomm Democratic billionaire Irwin Jacobs, gathered a total of $196,440 from donors with San Diego County addresses, a computer analysis shows. Trump was far behind with $16,450.

One of San Diego's biggest Trump givers last month was Jim Wood, president of Noble Americas Energy Solutions,who lives down the street from the posh Grand del Mar resort and golf course developed by Manchester. Wood came up with $2700 for the Trump committee on May 4.

"Jim joined Noble Americas in 2010 by way of Noble’s acquisition of Sempra Energy Solutions," according to an online Reuters profile. "He started with Sempra as Vice President of Commodity Sales in 2002 and was promoted to President in 2006."

Before that, the profile says Wood worked 12 years for Enron, the failed Texas energy outfit widely blamed for the California power squeeze and blackout crisis of 2000. The firm filed for bankruptcy in December 2001.

Five years later, CEO Jeffrey Skilling was convicted of multiple federal felonies and sent to prison. He could be released sometime next year. Enron founder Ken Lay, also convicted in the scandal and facing years of confinement, died of a heart attack in July 2006.

Before its acquisition by Singapore-listed Noble Group, the Sempra division, formerly known as RBS Sempra Commodities, reportedly dealt in Ugandan gold, which 60 Minutes reported in 2009 was the source of financing for fighting in the region.

Late last month, Noble Group announced that chief executive Yusuf Alireza was stepping down and that the company would spin off Noble Americas, based in downtown San Diego and reported to be a consistent money-maker.

"Since energy markets in the United States began deregulating more than 10 years ago, Noble Americas Energy Solutions has emerged as one of the leading retail energy suppliers," says the Noble Americas website.

The firm's parent hasn't been doing as well.

"Hurt by a slump in commodities prices in recent years and a large debt pile, as well as questions over its accounting practices, Noble has been under pressure to turn its business around," according to a May 29 report by the Financial Times. "The commodity house has been under fire for 15 months since allegations of aggressive accounting practices surfaced."

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's big local donors in May included La Jolla's Jim Waring, the controversial ex-planning aide to San Diego GOP mayor Jerry Sanders, came up with $1000 on May 23, bringing his total for the campaign to $3000, according to the filings.

A onetime associate of Suzanne Dalitz Brown, daughter of famous mid-century Las Vegas mob figure Moe Dalitz, Waring has more recently served as executive chairman of CleanTech, an electric-car-promoting nonprofit he cofounded in 2007.