Former U.S. Congressman Sentenced to 120 Months for Extensive Fraud, Tax and Election Crimes Scheme

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/former-us-congressman-sentenced-120-months-extensive-fraud-tax-and-election-crimes

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Former U.S. Congressman Sentenced to 120 Months for Extensive Fraud, Tax and Election Crimes Scheme

HOUSTON – A former U.S. Congressman was sentenced today to 120 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,014,718.51 in restitution, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for orchestrating a four-year scheme to defraud charitable donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars and secretly to funnel the proceeds to pay for personal expenses and to illegally finance his campaigns for public office.
(snip)

Former U.S. Representative Stephen E. Stockman, 61, was convicted by a federal jury in Houston on April 12 of 23 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to make conduit contributions and false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), making false statements to the FEC, making excessive coordinated campaign contributions, money laundering and filing a false tax return. Two of Stockman’s former congressional staffers previously pleaded guilty in the case. Thomas Dodd, 39, of Houston, pleaded guilty March 20, 2017, to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to make conduit contributions and false statements. Jason T. Posey, 48, of Tupelo, Mississippi, pleaded guilty Oct. 11, 2017, to one count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud,and one count of money laundering.
(snip)

According to the evidence presented at trial, from May 2010 to February 2014, Stockman and his co-defendants solicited $1,250,571.65 in donations from charitable organizations and the individuals who ran those organizations based on false pretenses, then used a series of sham nonprofit organizations and dozens of bank accounts to launder the money before it was used for a variety of personal and campaign expenses.

Specifically, the evidence established that in 2010, Stockman and Dodd solicited an elderly donor in Baltimore, Maryland, for $285,000 to be used for legitimate charitable and educational purposes. Stockman and Dodd used a sham charity named the Ross Center to funnel the money to be used for a variety of personal expenses. The evidence further established that, in 2011 and 2012, Stockman and Dodd received an additional $165,000 in charitable donations from the Baltimore donor, much of which Stockman used illegally to finance his 2012 congressional campaign.

The trial evidence also showed that shortly after Stockman took office as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, he and Dodd used the name of another sham nonprofit entity, Life Without Limits, to solicit and receive a $350,000 charitable donation, to be used to create an educational center called the Freedom House. Stockman, Dodd and Posey instead used this donation for a variety of personal and campaign expenses, including illegal conduit campaign contributions, a covert surveillance project targeting a perceived political opponent, an in-patient alcoholism treatment for a female associate and payments for hundreds of thousands of robocalls and mailings promoting Stockman’s candidacy for U.S. Senate in early 2014.

In addition, the evidence established that, in connection with Stockman’s Senate campaign, Stockman and Posey used another sham nonprofit entity to secure a $450,571.65 donation in order to fund a purportedly legitimate independent expenditure promoting Stockman’s candidacy. The evidence showed that the purportedly independent expenditure was in fact secretly controlled by Stockman who directed his campaign and Posey to file false affidavits with the FEC covering up Stockman’s involvement.
(snip)

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. Another of the GOP's finest

[Raster]

2. Every time a Rethuglican* goes to jail...

...an angel gets their wings.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Gee, he doesn't look sleazy in this photo!

Stockman, being sworn in, was probably cussed out at a later date.

[malaise]

4. Needs a ReTHUG mention in the OP title

He will soon have lots of company.

[Scarsdale]

5. Isn't this exactly

what the tRump family has done for years and years? Eerie Eric with the children's cancer fund, the entire clan with a NY "charity"?. Maybe news of the latest gop member being found guilty was what set Don the Con off today?

[malaise]

6. Yes - this is a smaller version and

hopefully they too will end up in prison

[watoos]

13. Trump's charitable trust

has none of Trump's personal money in it, only other people's. He uses it as a slush fund, doesn't give money to actual charities, unless you consider rounds of golf at Trump's courses charity. I think he used money from his trust to buy that infamous portrait of himself.

[pdsimdars]

7. Bias in article, it should have pointed out he was REPUBLICAN

[KelleyKramer]

8. Whenever they don't say the party, you know it's Republican

Fox news is even worse than that, they will go right ahead and put a D next to the name

[Laf.La.Dem.]

12. I looked at the article twice - did not say Republican!

Like the next post - you have to assume he IS a Republican

[47of74]

9. Enjoy prison, asshole

[duforsure]

10. Sounds exactly like

What trump and his family has been doing with their foundation, before law enforcement had it shut down.

[Achilleaze]

11. republican family-values suck cesspool scum

and are so often criminal