McCain returns businessman's donation

WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) -- The campaign of likely Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain says it has divested a large donation from a legally troubled Florida businessman.

A campaign spokesman told the Washington Post Wednesday that $50,000 in donations from venture capitalist Craig Berkman and his wife, obtained in May during the U.S. presidential primaries, were given to the American Red Cross after information emerged indicating Berkman owed millions of dollars in an unpaid judgment to his former business partners.

The Post said Berkman's donations to McCain drew the ire of former investors, who won a court case against him in Oregon but had yet to see any of the $28 million in civil damages the jury awarded.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told the newspaper that Berkman's legal problems weren't spotted because the McCain campaign had only a "skeleton staff" that "was obviously focused on winning primaries."