Former Rep. TJ Cox to Take Plea Deal on Fraud Charges

UPDATE Dec 12, 2024 2:45 PM CST

Former Rep. TJ Cox might be able to avoid jail time under a plea deal on fraud charges. Mark Coleman, an attorney for the California Democrat says 24 of 26 charges will be dismissed under the deal with federal prosecutors, the AP reports. Coleman says Cox, whose one term in the House ended in 2021, has agreed to pay $3.5 million in restitution. Coleman, who says his client made "shortcuts" in business transactions, plans to discuss appropriate sentencing with prosecutors after Cox changes his plea to guilty on the remaining two wire fraud charges. Without a deal, Cox could have faced decades in prison if convicted on all charges, the Fresno Bee reports.

Aug 16, 2022 8:14 PM CDT

Former Rep. TJ Cox served one term in the House, from Jan. 2019 to Jan. 2021. The California Democrat will be serving a lot more time than that in federal prison if he's convicted of all of the fraud charges he's facing. The FBI says Cox was arrested in Fresno on Tuesday morning, Politico reports. The Justice Department said Cox was indicted on "15 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of money laundering, one count of financial institution fraud, and one count of campaign contribution fraud." Cox, who founded two businesses that process nuts, could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Cox, 59, unseated Republican Rep. David Valadao in California's 21st congressional district in the 2018 election but narrowly lost to Valadao in 2020. According to the indictment, he was involved in numerous shady schemes over a decade, some of them involving campaign contributions, CNN reports. He allegedly obtained "over $1.7 million in diverted client payments and company loans and investments" which he placed in a secret account and used for personal—and political—expenses. According to the indictment, he distributed more than $25,000 to friends and relatives, instructing them to donate the funds to his campaign.

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"The purpose of emphasizing individual donations was to keep pace with competitors that received high numbers of private donations and to show viability of the candidacy through individual donations," the indictment states. Cox is also accused of lying on an application to obtain a $1.5 million construction loan and submitting fake bank statements to get a mortgage loan. (More California stories.)