Yuri Gripas/Reuters
Former Rep. Stephen Stockman (R-TX) was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for orchestrating a scheme to defraud donors and using the money for personal and campaign use, according to a Justice Department press release. Stockman was charged with 23 felonies back in April—including wire fraud, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and money laundering—after he and his co-defendants solicited $1,250,571.65 in donations from charities and their leaders. Stockman and the others then laundered the money before using it for a personal and campaign expenses. According to the DOJ, Stockman and his co-defendants “used a series of sham nonprofit organizations and dozens of bank accounts” in order to launder the money. In addition to the 10 years in prison, Stockman was ordered to pay $1,014,718.51 in restitution. He will also be under three years of supervised release after his prison sentence. Stockman previously served two terms in the House and lost a Republican Senate primary bid against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in 2014. “At trial, the government proved to the jury that former Congressman Stockman ran his campaign and fraudulent charities to simply enrich himself and defrauded well-meaning donors,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick of the Southern District of Texas wrote in the release. “This type of corruption by public officials gives our entire democratic system a black eye.”