Matt Gaetz Fraudster Gets Five Years for $25 Million Scheme

ALFORD PLEA

Roger Sollenberger

Senior Political Reporter

Published Aug. 22, 2022 6:06PM EDT

Joe Raedle/Getty

A federal judge on Monday sentenced Florida man Stephen M. Alford to 63 months in prison, followed by three years supervised release for his role in a scheme to defraud the family of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). Alford, who admitted to wire fraud in the scheme last November, had promised the Gaetz family that, if they gave him $25 million to help free a U.S. hostage in Iran, President Joe Biden would pardon the Republican in connection to an ongoing child sex trafficking investigation. Alford faced up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine. Gaetz had used the complicated scheme to muddy the waters when news of the sex crimes investigation broke last March, but The Daily Beast recently reported that FBI records challenged his version of those events and revealed him yelling at agents about a search warrant outside his father’s Florida home. Multiple people with direct knowledge tell The Daily Beast the sex trafficking probe is ongoing.

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Matt Gaetz Fraudster Gets Five Years for $25 Million Scheme

Roger Sollenberger

Joe Raedle/Getty