LOS ANGELES - A South Bay man and former congressional candidate was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison for embezzling approximately $250,000 from his political campaign through a fraudulent scheme involving his mother and friend, pocketing more than $100,000 in cash and using the money on personal expenses such as Las Vegas trips and to defend himself against criminal stalking charges.

Omar Navarro, 37, of Torrance, was sentenced by United States District Judge Mark C. Scarsi, who ordered Navarro immediately remanded into federal custody. A restitution hearing will be scheduled at a later date.

Navarro pleaded guilty in June 2025 to one count of wire fraud.

Navarro unsuccessfully campaigned in the four election cycles from 2016 to 2022 to represent south Los Angeles County residents in California's 43rd Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.

According to court documents, from July 2017 to February 2021, Navarro defrauded his campaign committee, Omar Navarro for Congress, by illicitly funneling campaign cash to himself. Navarro understood that federal law required his campaign to make regular, public disclosures about the receipt and disbursement of any funds raised or spent on its behalf.

As a congressional candidate, Navarro knew and understood that campaign funds raised by him and others for his campaign were restricted to supporting his election efforts and could not be used for his own personal use or enjoyment. Nevertheless, Navarro conspired with his co-defendants - his mother, Dora Asghari, 61, of Torrance, and his friend, Zacharias Diamantides-Abel, 37, of Long Beach - to convert campaign donations to personal use.

From 2018 to 2020, Navarro's campaign received more than $1 million in contributions from donors across the United States who supported his election to Congress. To use these funds for personal use and to fund his lavish lifestyle, Navarro illegally transferred campaign checks to himself by sending payments to Asghari and Abel - purportedly for campaign work. Asghari and Abel then sent that money - minus their cut - back to Navarro.

To further the scheme, Navarro represented on those checks, and later lied via disclosures to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that Abel, Asghari, and others - not Navarro - had received payment from the campaign for their services.

For example, in November 2019, Navarro wrote a $2,500 campaign check to his mother for little or no work that she performed for the campaign, knowing she would funnel a substantial amount of that money back to him for his personal use. Asghari cashed the check, which caused the transmission of an interstate wire communication. She then provided most of that money back to Navarro, who took the money and made three cash deposits totaling $2,340 in his personal bank account.

Navarro also wrote thousands of dollars' worth of checks to Brava Consulting, a company that his mother owned and operated, purporting to be in payment for campaign work, but which instead the bulk of which was funneled back to him for personal expenses.

These expenses included trips to Las Vegas, Nintendo Switch video games, a private investigator and personal criminal defense lawyers. Navarro admitted in his plea agreement to spending at least $12,822 in campaign money on legal fees to defend his criminal stalking case.

Navarro did not report to the FEC or his campaign donors that these payments were for personal expenses. Instead, he caused other people to file on his behalf false reports with the FEC representing that the payments were for campaign expenses.

In total, Navarro's scheme deprived the campaign and its donors of approximately $268,932 in campaign funds, according to prosecutors.

Asghari pleaded guilty in June 2025 to one count of making false statements for lying to the FBI in September 2020 when she said she never received any money from her son's congressional campaign and that she never provided her son any money she from the campaign checks she accepted as the owner of Brava Consulting. She will face up to five years in federal prison at her April 13 sentencing hearing.

Abel pleaded guilty in May 2025 to one count of conspiracy and awaits sentencing.

The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter. The California Fair Political Practices Commission provided assistance.

Assistant United States Attorneys Frances S. Lewis of the General Crimes Section, Thomas F. Rybarczyk and Juan M. Rodriguez of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section prosecuted this case.