Another Dem Crook!

[Mike]

Wright Convicted on 3 Fraud Counts




RALEIGH, N.C. — A jury on Monday found former state Rep. Thomas Wright guilty of three counts of fraud. Jurors acquitted him on a fourth fraud charge.

The former Wilmington state representative was charged with pocketing $8,900 in corporate donations to his Community Health Foundation and fraudulently obtaining a $150,000 loan to buy a building for a museum to commemorate Wilmington's 1898 race riots.

Jurors convicted Wright of loan fraud and of depositing donations from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Anheuser-Busch into his personal account. They found him not guilty of taking a $1,500 donation by AT&T to the foundation because Wright never contacted company officials to solicit the donation.

After the verdicts were announced, prosecutors asked Superior Court Judge Henry Hight to consider aggravating factors in Wright's sentencing. Considering such aggravation, such as Wright taking advantage of his position and inducing others to take part in the scheme, could lead to more prison time for the eight-term lawmaker.

Wright claimed last week that the charges were politically motivated because he wouldn't support the Democratic candidate for a state Senate seat in Wilmington.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said the case wasn't political but was about seeking justice and Wright's deliberately breaking the law.

"It should probably make you angry that Thomas Wright, a legislator – elected – comes to Raleigh and sits in his office and has his administrative assistant prepare letters to send to corporations to get contributions to put in his pocket," Willoughby said.

Defense attorney Douglas Harris argued that Wright didn't fraudulently obtain the loan, saying it was approved 10 days before a state health official wrote a letter saying the foundation would get a state grant.

That letter detailed a nonexistent grant, and prosecutors argued Wright used it to convince his bank that the foundation would soon have the money needed to pay back the loan.

Wright acknowledged during his testimony last week that the grant described in the letter was bogus, but said the letter was drafted to convince the General Assembly there was an unfulfilled need for the race riot museum.

The money never surfaced, in part, because the legislature couldn't find funds during tight budget times, he testified.

Harris also said none of the three companies that gave Wright's foundation the donations complained about how the money was spent. Wright said he took the money as a reimbursement for thousands of dollars he spent to help start the foundation and create the museum, which was never built.

Willoughby said Wright had no evidence to support that claim and others, such as an assertion that the mistakes in his financial record-keeping were oversights.

"It was a paper foundation because it was nothing more than Thomas Wright himself," the prosecutor said.

Wright acknowledged during his testimony that he had no documents showing that he had actually spent any of his own money, but Harris blamed prosecutors Friday for that lack of proof.

Wright is still waiting for documents from his bank, he said, and would have been able to provide them to the court had Willoughby not rushed the case to trial.

Wright was kicked out of office over the charges. A special House ethics committee recommended last month he be removed for ethical misconduct, and the full House agreed.

The vote to expel the eight-term lawmaker marked the first removal of a member of the General Assembly in 128 years. Former Wilmington City Council member Sandra Spaulding Hughes was picked last week to serve the remainder of Wright's term.

[Goodpasture]

[aplusmnt]

[Goodpasture]

Another Dem Crook?


or, Just another dumb quote...........

[Oldtimer]

[Sandhusker]