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Former Democrat Rep. T.J. Cox of California has been indicted by a grand jury on 28 federal counts, including fraud and campaign contribution fraud.
He is charged with 15 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of money laundering, one count of financial institution fraud, and one count of campaign contribution fraud.
Cox was part of the 2018 “blue wave” election that brought Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi back to power.
The former Democrat is accused of fraudulently claiming to have purchased a property as his primary residence, but never did.
In 2018, he was accused of having his “principal residence” in Maryland. Critics alleged that he did not actually live in California where he was running for office.
Cox barely won his race by defeating incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao. Although Valadao appeared to be winning on Election Night, he ended up losing once the mail-in ballots were counted.
Experts say that ballot harvesting gave Cox the victory. Former Vice President Joe Biden also campaigned for Cox at the time.
More on this story via Breitbart:
A press release from the Department of Justice said:
According to allegations in the indictment, Cox perpetrated multiple fraud schemes targeting companies he was affiliated with and their clients and vendors. Cox created unauthorized off-the-books bank accounts and diverted client and company money into those accounts through false representations, pretenses and promises. From 2013 to 2018, across two different fraud schemes, Cox illicitly obtained over $1.7 million in diverted client payments and company loans and investments he solicited and then stole.
In addition, Cox allegedly received mortgage loan funds from a lender for a property purchase by submitting multiple false representations to the lender, including fabricated bank statements and false statements that Cox intended to live in the property as his primary residence. However, the indictment alleges Cox intended to and did buy the property to rent it to someone else.
According to allegations in the indictment, Cox also fraudulently obtained a $1.5 million construction loan to develop the recreation area in Fresno known as Granite Park. Cox and his business partner’s nonprofit could not qualify for the construction loan without a financially viable party guaranteeing the loan. Cox falsely represented that one of his affiliated companies would guarantee the loan, and submitted a fabricated board resolution which falsely stated that at a meeting on a given date all company owners agreed to guarantee the Granite Park loan. No meeting took place, and the other owners did not agree to back the loan. The loan later went into default causing a loss of more than $1.28 million.
According to allegations in the indictment, when Cox was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 election, he perpetrated a scheme to fund and reimburse family members and associates for donations to his campaign. Cox arranged for over $25,000 in illegal straw or conduit donations to his campaign in 2017.