Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas May Face Securities-Fraud Indictment

[Markinsa]

Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas May Face Securities-Fraud Indictment

By MANNY FERNANDEZ

 

JULY 2, 2015

 

HOUSTON — Evidence that Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, committed securities fraud before he became the state’s top lawyer will soon be presented to a grand jury, a special prosecutor said this week.

 

Mr. Paxton, a Republican, was dogged by legal troubles last year on the campaign trail before he won election as attorney general in November. Those legal troubles have intensified in recent days.

 

One of two special prosecutors handling the case said Wednesday that he will present evidence to a grand jury in a few weeks that Mr. Paxton violated state securities law. The special prosecutor, Kent A. Schaffer, declined to discuss the allegations but said they were uncovered in an investigation by the Texas Rangers.

 

“I think there’s sufficient evidence to present to the grand jury,” Mr. Schaffer said Thursday in an interview.

 

A spokesman for Mr. Paxton, Anthony Holm, said in a statement that the case appeared to be a politically motivated effort to “ruin the career of a longtime public servant.” Mr. Holm said that three agencies — the State Securities Board and prosecutors in Austin and Dallas — had already reviewed the matter without pursuing a criminal case. “From the outset their intention appears to have been to try this case in the media, not the courtroom,” Mr. Holm said of the special prosecutors.

 

 

Ken Paxton Credit Laura Buckman for The Texas Tribune

 

The possible indictment comes as Mr. Paxton has been raising his political profile, and angering Democrats, by taking the Obama administration to court over environmental, immigration and other issues. Also, after last week’s Supreme Court ruling in support of same-sex marriages, Mr. Paxton has encouraged county clerks in Texas to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples if doing so would violate their religious beliefs. He said in a defiant news release that the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling had “weakened the rule of law.”

 

Last May, Mr. Paxton was reprimanded by the Securities Board for failing to register as a representative of an investment adviser when he solicited clients for a friend’s investment firm. Mr. Paxton solicited three clients for the firm, Mowery Capital Management, in 2004, 2005 and 2012 and in return was paid a portion of the asset management fees, according to the board. At the time, Mr. Paxton was a member of the Texas House of Representatives and had not registered with the Securities Board.

 

Mr. Paxton was fined $1,000. Mr. Schaffer, the special prosecutor, said the allegations the grand jury will hear in the northern Dallas suburb of Collin County were unrelated to Mr. Paxton’s reprimand by the Securities Board.

 

Mr. Holm, Mr. Paxton’s spokesman, questioned the experience of the special prosecutors — Mr. Schaffer and Brian Wice, who are defense lawyers. “It appears that they have prosecuted only one case between them,” Mr. Holm said. “Not only do they appear inexperienced as prosecutors, they are from Houston. Meanwhile thousands of experienced prosecutors and former prosecutors are in the Dallas area.”

 

 

Mr. Schaffer and Mr. Wice said in a joint statement that none of the agencies mentioned by Mr. Holm had reviewed the new evidence assembled by the Texas Rangers, and that they had been brought in from Houston to ensure that local politics stayed out of the investigation.

 

“Our investigation will continue to be informed by what our oaths as special prosecutors commands: to do justice,” the statement said. “And sound bites and personal attacks won’t change that.”

 

The possible criminal case against Mr. Paxton started when a nonprofit government watchdog group, Texans for Public Justice, filed a complaint against him last year after he was reprimanded, asking the district attorney in Austin’s Travis County to prosecute him for felony criminal conduct. The case was ultimately forwarded to other authorities, the Texas Rangers began an investigation and a judge named the special prosecutors.

 

Texans for Public Justice is the organization that filed a complaint against Rick Perry when he was the governor. That complaint led to a judge’s appointing a special prosecutor and Mr. Perry’s indictment last year on charges of abusing his official capacity and coercing a public servant, part of a case involving the use of his veto power. That case is still pending. Mr. Perry, whose tenure as governor ended in January, is now a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

[davis411]

well like all politicians, he looks very trusting and innocent,

 

NOT

they all steal, eh i might also if i was in that side of the grass, but 

i am on the side where the grass never grows green

[SgtFuryUSCZ]

///***

 

Yup... the angry, bloodthirsty demons of the left have been unleashed like so many harpies,

 

to pick every bone, squeeze every drop, look under every rock, lift every skirt, peek behind every cloud,

 

wring every rag...

 

SO pathetic and desperate they have a high profile CRIMINALarious Klinton running around loose and have not so much as

 

looked in her desk drawer..... so they unleash the hounds to net some guy who [may] have done FAR less than that sea hag !

 

 

Hand wringing desperation, sweat pouring down the brows, teeth clenched, grasping and clawing like desperate rats.

 

All the while turning their backs to MASSIVE CRIMINAL ACTION going on in their OWN ADMINISTRATION !

 

 

SO child-like and petty to deflect their own short-comings by haulin' in a minnow and telling all it's a 400LB marlin !

 

Pathetic.

 

And you're right DAVIS -- pot callin' the kettle black BIG TIME !

[davis411]

And you're right DAVIS -- pot callin' the kettle black BIG TIME

hahahaha 

 

i call it black to many times,

you should see the audits i go through because i bite back

I bite they take more, 

sort of    

 

not to worry my friend, we have so many issues here also, theft, insider trading etc.

but they are found guilty still get a pension and a buy out, then get offered another position 

 

makes me sick,  

stay strong and hope one day all of us sheep

 

BITE BACK    

[Jim1cor13]

One would be surprised to know this kind of activity

goes on by many of these guys. Insider info derived

form various lobbyists, etc., nothing new, just a few

that get caught. Funny how they dig things up on each

other, indeed, pot calling kettle black.