Austin - Attorney General Ken Paxton has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of security fraud – a development that has one Democratic PAC calling the Republican greedy.
A grand jury in McKinney green-lighted the three-count indictment on Tuesday.
Throughout his 2014 campaign, the Record often reported that the Texas State Securities Board issued a disciplinary order against the former state representative from McKinney on May 2, 2014, finding Paxton solicited investment clients without being registered with the state.
An ongoing criminal complaint, filed by Texans for Public Justice, a group backed by trial lawyers, followed him throughout the campaign but didn’t hinder him from crushing his Democratic opponent, attorney Sam Houston, in the general election.
The Lone Star Project, an anti-Republican PAC, says Paxton cannot hide behind the argument that the prosecution is politically motivated, as he has been embroiled in the scandal for well over a year, and that it was TPJ’s complaint that ultimately led to evidence being presented before the grand jury.
"Texans deserve an AG who spends his time putting lawbreakers in jail rather than one desperately trying to avoid jail time himself,” said LSP Director Matt Angle in an Aug. 1 statement.
"Ken Paxton engaged in greedy and dishonest scams to enrich himself and then tried to brush past it all with arrogant disregard and disrespect for the law.”