State party chair demands answers after report links Hovde’s bank to suspicious $26 million cash transfer.
MADISON, Wis.— The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is demanding answers from U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde after reports surfaced that his bank in California received a $26 million cash transfer from a Mexican bank with alleged ties to drug cartels. The controversy has prompted party officials, including WisDems Chair Ben Wikler, to question Hovde’s business dealings and potential conflicts of interest.
The allegations stem from a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which revealed that Banco Azteca, a Mexican bank reportedly used by drug cartels and cut off by several U.S. financial institutions, transferred millions in cash across the U.S.-Mexico border to Hovde’s bank. Banco Azteca has long been under scrutiny for its alleged role in facilitating money laundering for organized crime.
“Eric Hovde needs to come clean about which foreign entities are filling his bank with millions of dollars in deposits,” said Wikler in a public statement. “If he doesn’t come clean, how can Wisconsinites trust him to work for them instead of his questionable foreign business partners?”