Posted on 08/03/2015 9:57:33 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton turned himself in Monday morning at the Collin County Jail in McKinney to be booked on three felony charges.
Paxton posted a total of $35,000 bond on two counts of securities fraud and one count of failing to register as an investment adviser.
Sources said a grand jury in Collin County handed up the indictments Tuesday, which were immediately sealed. The charges stem from an investigation carried out by the Texas Rangers.
The first two are first-degree felonies punishable by up to 99 years in prison on conviction. The last is a third-degree felony that carries a punishment range of up to 10 years in prison.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.click2houston.com ...
I don’t know the Ranger’s history enough to know if bad applies show up from time to time.
It does concern me that a person might break some security laws out of ignorance.
It’s not really fair for me to address it in factual terms, because I don’t know the situation. I just like to see people tried on things they purposefully did wrong.
I wonder if this is related to someone who lost a lot of money and is trying to recoup some of it.
Yeah, that's a political decision/question. Paxton is better off fighting this, but the governor may not want that action cluttering up the Texas landscape.
This is a good opportunity to hand out some "unpopular" decisions from the AG's office, since the scapegoat is identified.
Yes, but they disclose that, it's baked into the transaction cost, etc. In this case, the "commission" was unknown to the ones paying. I picture the transaction being "investors paid into Severgy, Severgy kicked-back some of that to Paxton for the referral."
The seriousness of that infraction (aside from the arbitrary assignment of seriousness that the law assigns) really depends on the players and what they know about each other, their past history in investments, and lots of other factors.
My initial thoughts too.
Esp seeing pics of brainwashed Dems “protesting” against Paxton at the courthouse
The Dems have a near monopoly on corruption. Yet nary a peep from the MSM
Yeah, it doesn’t look good based on what I’ve read also. Fees paid to unlicensed “advisor” tracing bank records, customer complaints, etc. should be easily tied together if that’s the case. There were also complaints that Mowery tried to get clients to sign backdated documents that Paxton would receive a percentage of advisory fees.
It may be a vendetta but these events occurred and were being investigated before last month when Paxton made the marriage license statements.
The penalties seem very harsh, but I suspect he’s in alot of hot water over this. There might have been a conflict of interest with him being an estate planner lawyer and not being able to secure the proper investment licenses in Texas so he didn’t register. For him to allegedly do this IMO was really stupid and out of character for him. Very disappointed.
So true.
Sorry for the existence of bad English in that post.
Ouch.
Totally missed it. My own astigmatism must have its advantages, after all! LOL! Your English is quite okay in my book. :)
Thanks RitaOK.
A maximum sentence doesn’t mean he’ll get one if guilty. Someone who makes millions off of deceiving hundreds of investors would be more likely to get the maximum sentence. But if he made $100K by fraud, then he deserves some prison time. That isn’t exactly a gray area of the law...
Fair amount of shared ignorance downthread.
First, the county where he was indicted is heavily Republican, and a TEA party stronghold.
Second, this didn’t crop up after he took office. He admitted the facts surrounding the investment adviser charge before the election. (The fraud charges are new). So the indictment on that count shouldn’t be unexpected.
I have no opinion as to his guilt on any of the charges, but no one should express surprise as to the current circumstances.
The fine was a civil penalty (with a lower burden of proof) not criminal. So same facts, but not a double jeopardy situation.
Thanks Par35. I appreciate the explanation.
Not in Collin county. There was the case of the former DA who prosecuted cases tried before his mistress. The judge who was convicted of felony bribery (and got probation). The Clerk who misused her office for campaigning. A first assistant district attorney was indicted for for record tampering (don't remember how that turned out - I don't think it made it to trial).
And it is all republican on republican action.
“Yeah, it doesn’t look good based on what I’ve read also. Fees paid to unlicensed “advisor” tracing bank records, customer complaints, etc. should be easily tied together if that’s the case. There were also complaints that Mowery tried to get clients to sign backdated documents that Paxton would receive a percentage of advisory fees.”
I really want this to be a political persecution we can dismiss, but if what you say is true he’s toast, and richly deserves to be.
This is outright fraud, and he should do time. If proven.
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