Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton got some bad news this week when he found out a grand jury had indicted him on two counts of first-degree securities fraud and a third-degree charge for a state securities board violation.
The news broke Saturday in story by The New York Times, wherein the paper reported the verdict of the Dallas grand jury’s decision. The indictment will be unsealed on Monday, at which point Paxton is expected to turn himself in to authorities.
Much of the case against Paxton revolved around his work as an investor and advisor. The first-degree charge was handed down as a result of Paxton’s tenure with Severgy Inc., a technology company for whom the former state legislator was raising investment money in.
Paxton managed to collect more than $600,000 from investors in 2011, but failed to tell them he was “making a commission on the investment.”
He is accused of … failing to tell (the investors) he was making a commission on their investment, and misrepresenting himself as an investor in the company.
Paxton’s legal team wasn’t too pleased with some of the publicity and hype surrounding the case. In fact, one spokesperson from the Paxton camp was quoted by The New York Times as having called the grand jury case a “witches’ brew of jury tampering.”
If society continues to overlook this witches’ brew of jury tampering, media leaks and freshman prosecutors, we may wake up to find the office of the attorney general of Texas at the mercy of two criminal defense attorneys
The Dallas Morning News reported that Paxton’s third-degree charge was the result of the politician not properly registering himself as an investment adviser to the Texas State Securities Board.
Paxton paid a $1,000 fine for the error, but at a later time an advocacy group unearthed his error and demanded an investigation into whether or not Paxton purposely violated the securities board’s rules.
