Paul Erickson, a Republican operative who was in a long-term relationship with Russian agent Maria Butina, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering.
The plea agreement, filed in South Dakota federal court on Monday, came the same day Butina was offered a job by Moscow to defend Russians imprisoned abroad.
In a two-page factual basis statement for the plea, Erickson, who faces a maximum of 40 years in prison, said he misled someone identified as “D.G.” into wiring him $100,000 with the understanding that it was for a real estate investment in North Dakota.
He noted that he wired $1,000 of the investment to a person identified as “M.B.”
Prosecutors alleged Erickson bilked “many victims” out of hundreds of thousands of dollars from 1996 to 2018, tens of thousands of which he used on personal expenses for Butina.
The investigation into Erickson was separate from the case against Butina, who was deported last month after an 18-month prison sentence for conspiring to act as an agent of the Russian government without registering with the Justice Department. She was not charged with espionage.
John Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, described Butina as “an influence agent.”
“Her lawyer is right that she didn’t get, as far as we know, classified information. But that’s not what she was doing here. She was an influence agent. She was getting access to Americans, who she thought were close to power in America,” the Justice Department official said.
Erickson and Butina began dating in 2013. Their relationship was scrutinized during Butina’s case, with prosecutors alleging the 31-year-old was dating Erickson, who was nearly twice her age, only to further her influence activities.
Erickson, 57, was a national political director for Pat Buchanan’s Republican primary challenge to President George H. W. Bush in the 1992 election. He has also been an adviser to both of Sen. Mitt Romney’s failed presidential campaigns.
