Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is nearing a resolution to the 9-year-old securities fraud charges that have dogged his tenure as the state’s top attorney through a special agreement with prosecutors, the American-Statesman has learned.
Under a draft agreement, prosecutors would dismiss felony charges against Paxton if he successfully completes the terms of the deal, according to three sources familiar with the negotiations.
While I share your outrage, he was not indicted by the federal government, so this had nothing to do with the justice department. This is a Texas state prosecutor letting him off easy for securities fraud.
Paxton though, being the repeat offender he is, does have a separate ongoing corruption investigation that is department of justice led. It’s confusing when you’re breaking the law so often like Paxton. We’ll see if that probe can bring him into a federal case where lackey state prosecutors won’t be there coddling him.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-department-taking-texas-ag-paxton-corruption-probe-rcna71135
Weird. How is securities fraud not under the purview of the SEC? It was my understanding the SEC issues civil penalties and utilizes the DOJ (namely the FBI) for criminal penalties.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This was a state case though. In Harris County court.
There’s Texas state laws about security fraud:
https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/PE/htm/PE.32.htm
I doubt the federal government deals with all security fraud, it’s a pretty broad category. Probably would have to involve interstate commerce or publicly traded companies to be a federal issue. I am not an expert though.
Well that’s super convenient for ol’ Ken, isn’t it?
I appreciate your replies, thank you!