An ex-GOP congressional aide to former Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, has been sentenced to 18 months behind bars for his involvement in a scheme to defraud donors by establishing artificial charities and then using proceeds for personal and campaign expenses.
Thomas Dodd, who pleaded guilty in 2017 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to make conduit contributions and false statements, must also pay $800,000 in restitution and must forfeit $153,044.28 in illicit gains, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
During Dodd’s guilty plea in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, he confessed to assisting Stockman in his scheme, which amassed $1,250,571.65 in donations from charities — and those who headed the charities — by misleading them. The money was then laundered through several fraudulent nonprofit organizations and bank accounts and went toward paying for personal and campaign expenses, according to evidence presented at Stockman’s trial.
In one example raised at the trial, Stockman and Dodd created a phony nonprofit organization called Life Without Limits and received a $350,000 charitable donation. The funds then went toward expenses, including undercover surveillance of a potential political opponent, an in-patient alcoholism treatment for a female associate, and robocalls and mailings for Stockman’s Senate primary bid against Sen. John Cornyn in 2014, which he lost by a wide margin.
Stockman was convicted in April of 23 counts including mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to make conduit contributions and false statements to the Federal Election Commission, money laundering, and filing a false tax return. He was sentenced to 120 months in prison last month.
Stockman served a single House term 1995-97 and returned for one more term 2013-15.
