Ex-Congressman From Texas Charged With Stealing Charitable Donations
By NIRAJ CHOKSHI and MANNY FERNANDEZ
MARCH 29, 2017
A former United States representative from Texas and one of his aides were indicted on Tuesday on charges that they stole hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for charity, some of which was used to illegally finance his campaigns.
The former representative, Steve Stockman, 60, and the former director of special projects in his congressional office, Jason Posey, 46, were charged in a 28-count indictment related to the alleged yearslong fraud scheme. The charges included mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and money laundering, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Mr. Stockman, a Republican, solicited $1.25 million in charitable donations from May 2010 to October 2014 that was later used for other purposes, the Justice Department said.
Dane Ball, who represents Mr. Stockman along with his colleagues at the law firm Smyser Kaplan & Veselka, said the former congressman plans to plead not guilty.
“Similar to what Steve said outside the courthouse after his arrest, he’s innocent and we are reviewing the indictment now,” Mr. Ball said on Tuesday night.
In a red state where former President Barack Obama was never very popular, Mr. Stockman stood out for being intensely anti-Obama.
In 2014, Mr. Stockman walked out of Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address in protest. He invited Missouri rodeo clowns who mocked Mr. Obama in a controversial skit to perform in his district. He also sold Obama “barf bags” as a campaign fund-raiser. And in 2013, he took the conservative rocker Ted Nugent, no fan of Mr. Obama, to the president’s State of the Union address as his guest.
Mr. Stockman served one term in the mid-1990s and again from 2013 to 2015. He also ran unsuccessfully for United States Senate in 2014.
In 2010, Mr. Stockman redirected a sizable share of $285,000 intended for charity to cover personal expenses for himself and Thomas Dodd, another aide, and to further his “own interests,” the Justice Department said, citing the indictment. He used much of $165,000 in charitable donations raised in 2011 and 2012 to pay for his congressional campaign, the department said.
After taking office in 2013, Mr. Stockman and Mr. Dodd used the name of a nonprofit to raise an additional $350,000, which he spent on personal and campaign expenses, including campaign contributions, opposition research and payments related to his failed Senate campaign, according to the Justice Department.
Mr. Posey used the name of a nonprofit to raise approximately $450,000, which was later spent on mailers attacking an opponent of Mr. Stockman and campaign and personal expenses, the Justice Department said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service conducted the investigation into the scheme. The case is being prosecuted by lawyers with the Justice Department and the office of the United States attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
Mr. Dodd, a former special assistant in Mr. Stockman’s congressional office who was also charged with use of the ill-gotten donations, pleaded guilty to his involvement last week.
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