Edgardo Bamba Valenton, Petitioner, v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Respondent, 141 F.3d 1182 (9th Cir. 1998)

MEMORANDUM^* 

Edgardo Bamba Valenton petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals's decision affirming the immigration judge's denial of his requests for asylum and withholding of deportation. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a), and we deny the petition.

The facts are known to the parties, and we shall not repeat them here.

To obtain reversal of the Board's decision, a petitioner must show that "the evidence he presented was so compelling that no reasonable factfinder could fail to find the requisite fear of persecution" on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 483-84, 112 S. Ct. 812, 117 L. Ed. 2d 38 (1992). Substantial evidence supports the Board's conclusion that Valenton has neither suffered past persecution nor faces a well-founded fear of future persecution "on account of" his political opinion. Valenton was contacted by the New People's Army ("NPA") because he was a corporate secretary and shareholder of the Fortune Lending Investing Corporation. The record more than adequately supports the Board's conclusion that the NPA's targeting of Valenton was not motivated, even in part, by Valenton's political opinion. See id.; Borja v. INS, No. 97-70272, slip op. at ___ (9th Cir. March 20, 1998); Sangha v. INS, 103 F.3d 1482, 1490 (9th Cir. 1997).

DENIED.