Former Democratic Congressman Charged With Fraud

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in California indicted Terrance John Cox, a former Democratic consultant of Fresno, for an array of economic crimes, together with a bid to divert marketing campaign contributions throughout his election marketing campaign in 2018.

Mr. Cox, 59, often known as T.J., is charged with 28 counts, together with wire fraud, cash laundering and making a marketing campaign contribution below the title of one other individual, based on a felony criticism {that a} federal choose unsealed on Tuesday.

Mr. Cox diverted $25,000 in unlawful “straw” contributions to his 2018 marketing campaign to secretly “fund and reimburse family members and associates for donations to his campaign,” prosecutors for the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Eastern District of California stated.

The F.B.I. arrested Mr. Cox on Tuesday morning. He was set to be arraigned later within the day.

Attempts to contact Mr. Cox and his lawyer weren’t instantly profitable.

The costs, a lot of which stem from Mr. Cox’s tenure as the pinnacle of a neighborhood improvement agency, additionally cowl varied complicated monetary transactions from 2013 to 2019. If he’s convicted, he would face hundreds of thousands in potential fines and a jail sentence of 20 to 30 years.

During that interval, prosecutors stated, Mr. Cox obtained greater than $1.7 million in shopper funds, firm loans and investments that “he solicited and then stole.”

In 2018, Mr. Cox narrowly unseated David Valadao, the Republican incumbent, in a aggressive swing district. But Mr. Valadao defeated him two years later, in an election during which it was later revealed that campaign contributions to Mr. Cox had been diverted to one in every of Mr. Cox’s actual property ventures.

In current months, the Justice Department has pursued a handful of instances in opposition to Democratic officers.

They embrace a bribery case in opposition to a former lieutenant governor of New York, Brian Benjamin; wire fraud charges in opposition to a former candidate for Florida governor, Andrew Gillum; and a racketeering case in opposition to Michael Madigan, the previous speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.