For a somber federal court document, there sure are a lot of playful nicknames that pop up in the latest indictment handed down this week in the campaign finance scandal.
Many of them refer to the man at the center of the allegations, a Mexican businessman named Jose Susumo Azano Matsura. In the indictment, he’s called “foreign national,” “Mr. A” – shorthand for Mr. Azano – and the most colorful reference of the bunch, “Mr. Lambo.”
Lambo is a common reference to a Lamborghini, which makes sense given Azano’s penchant for exotic luxury vehicles.
How would prosecutors know about Azano’s interest in luxury cars? It turns out those cars have turned up pretty frequently in traffic citations.
Azano’s license is currently suspended through at least October, VOSD has learned.
Azano was pulled over by a Coronado police officer for driving 123 mph in a red Bugatti Veyron on a 65 mph stretch of State Route 75 in May 2013. Seven months later, he was pulled by the California Highway Patrol over for driving 89 mph in a 65 mph zone on the 805 Freeway in a silver Bentley, according to court records.
Azano pleaded guilty to “speeding greater than 100 mph” in the first incident, was fined $500, mandated to attend eight hours of traffic school and his right to drive was suspended for a year.
In the second instance, the California Highway Patrol officer noted that Azano’s license was already suspended when he was pulled over for speeding. Azano pleaded guilty to driving on a suspended license and to speeding.
Those two instances weren’t the first time Azano’s run into traffic issues. Azano’s driving privileges were suspended in 2002 and again in July 2006, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. It’s not clear what the 2002 suspension was for, but a copy of an October 2006 letter from the DMV to Azano says action is being taken “because you violated your written promise to appear and/or you failed to pay a fine.”
In March 2013, he was caught speeding in Coronado in a black 2013 Mercedes SUV registered to his wife. And about a year earlier he was caught speeding in a 2012 Rolls Royce.
I spoke with a handful of attorneys who specialize in traffic court. They all agreed that nothing seemed out of the ordinary about the punishments doled out to Azano for his various infractions.
None of the vehicles involved in Azano’s traffic transgressions seem to have been an actual Lamborghini. Mr. Lambo is probably just a catchall term for a guy who likes fast, fancy cars.