Last summer, we blogged about former Florida Rep. Corrine Brown’s legal woes.
Brown faced, “24 counts ranging fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, making false statements, wire fraud, and more,” reported First Coast News in July of 2016. Brown was accused of creating a fake charity called One Door, raising over $800,000, and then using the cash as her own personal slush fund. The charity only dished out $1,200 in donations, according to the prosecutor.
Thursday, Brown was convicted on eighteen federal fraud charges.
First Coast News reports:
A jury found former Congresswoman Corrine Brown guilty on 18 counts of a 24 indictment Thursday, bringing an end to the 30-year political career of one of the region’s most recognizable politicians.
The verdict capped eight days of testimony, nearly 50 witnesses and more than a hundreds of pieces of evidence introduced at trial. The jury deliberated for nearly two days at the federal courthouse in downtown Jacksonville before returning its verdict.
…
Brown was found guilty of 1, 2, 4, 6 – 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 – 24 She was found guilty on charges of Conspiring to commit mail/wire fraud, filing false tax returns, and lying on financial disclosure forms and working to obstruct the IRS.
Brown was stoic and stared straight ahead as the verdict was being read.
The laundry list of charges is as follows:
Count 1 is a conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud charge.
Counts 2 through 8 are aiding and abetting mail fraud charges.
Counts 9 through 17 are aiding and abetting wire fraud charges.
Counts 1 through 17 are related to Brown’s affiliation with a fake charity, One Door For Education.
Brown is not charged with count 18 – her chief of staff faced that charge before accepting a plea deal in February.
Count 19 is an engaging in a scheme to hide facts charge.
This charge relates to her financial disclosure forms she’s required to file as a member of congress each year by law. The prosecution says she lied about her amount of income. The defense argues she was just sloppy with her bookkeeping.
Brown is not charged with count 20 – her chief of staff faced that charge before accepting a plea deal in February.
Count 21 is a corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede IRS laws filing her tax returns for tax years 2008 – 2014 charge.
Count 22 is a charge alleging filing false U.S. individual income tax returns in 2012.
Count 23 is a charge alleging filing false U.S. individual income tax returns in 2013.
Count 24 is a charge alleging filing false U.S. individual income tax returns in 2014.
First Coast News continued:
At the center of the trial was a bogus charity that Brown used to raise some $833,000 between 2012–2015. Big name donors like former CSX CEO Michael Ward, philanthropist Gasper Lazarra and attorney Steve Pajcic were just some of those who testified they gave money to One Door For Education in order to help poor and minority students.
One Door gave out just $1,200 in scholarships, prosecutors said. The rest went to pay for lavish events hosted by Brown, or into the pockets of the congresswoman, her chief of staff, and the charity’s president, Carla Wiley.
Ronnie Simmons, Brown’s former chief of staff, testified against his longtime boss and friend, as did Wiley. Both agreed to plead guilty in exchange for possible leniency in sentencing. Brown dismissed their testimony and said both used her to enrich themselves. She admitted making “mistakes,” but insisted any financial issues were accidental.
Brown is known internet-wide for her bizarre House floor speech celebrating the Florida Gators:
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Comments
Wow, dat spesh wuz sumdin elz. However, Urban Meyer now coaches the best college football team in the country and the first to win an actual national championship; The Ohio State University Buckeyes!
Clemson fan checking in. I can’t remember the score of the 2016 Fiesta Bowl . . . ????
OSU fan checking in. What happened the year before? See how immature this game you play is?
Do you mean the 2014 Orange Bowl?
Speaking of immature, that would be the OSU fans who broke the flags off our car at both of those games.
persecuted by trump, no doubt… nothing like that would ever come from the likes of rangel, waters, weiner…demo-rats
My experience as an employer is that you can take people out of the ghetto, but you cannot take the ghetto out of them. Some groups are considerably dumber than others, in this case with an average IQ of 85.
Wait just a minute: How can a fat, female, black, self-righteous, flaming liberal, cultural misappropriator in the ilk of Michelle Obama, Donna Brazil, Dr. DeRionned Pollard, Jehmu Green, and Whoopi Goldberg be convicted of a crime?
We need a special prosecutor to investigate this.
Obviously white racism, white guilt, white supremacy, white privilege, white flour, white sugar, White House.
In a post-trial interview, Corrine proclaimed, “Diddunuttin bad.”
raysists bahsturds. going after that sweet person.
man I just threw up in my mouth after typing that.
you know what will happen?
NOTHING!!!!
absolutely f’ing nothing.
She’s had serious ethics violations her entire time. Nobody would do anything about it becau’ she blaick, dawgz!
Gradulating class indeed. Robespierre needs some gradulating.
Corrine Brown was only driven out of office by re-gerrymandering her district so that she couldn’t win or else she would still be in office. Once she lost she was then charged with the Federal crimes which she pretty much did in the open, while in office. The jury deliberated quite a while before one juror had to be replaced for “acting strange.” Once a new juror was seated a verdict was quickly reached. I hope this is the end for her.
Last year, at the state and local level, the fourth judicial circuit (Clay, Duval and Nassau Counties Florida) we got rid of bad prosecutor Angela Corey and replaced her with Melissa Nelson in the Republican primary, thanks NRA!
Next: Pelosi and Feinstein, whose corruption – enriching their husbands by billions with inside government deals – dwarfs this loser’s.
Brown is about average in thievery for a member of the CBC. She is right up there with Chaka Fattah, Jesse Jackson Jr, William Jefferson, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Alcee Hastings et al.
And of course there are CBC members that haven’t been indicted yet like Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Greg Meeks, Gwen Moore and Charlie Rangel.
Let’s not forget thieving black politicians like Ray Nagin and Kwame Fitzpatrick who never rose to the heights of the CBC ( though they were headed that way ).
As with property crime and murder, blacks are way overrepresented, given that they are about 12% of the population.
Ex-Representative (wonderful title that should be given to every Crony Capitalist in Congress) Brown (criminal-Florida) claimed she did not properly supervise the Slush Fund’s Executive Director (also convicted on 1 count). Excuse me, but every Veteran knows the Commanding Officer is responsible for 100% of what his/her troops do. It appears ex-Rep Brown ignored that lesson to her demise.
Jacksonville’s version of Maxine Waters but without her fashion sense.