Politics & Government
Silver Spring Man Pleads Guilty in Straw Donor Scheme
Lee C. Calhoun made thousands of dollars in political contributions, when really the money was coming from his employer.
Silver Spring resident Lee C. Calhoun has pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws, multiple news outlets reported this week.
Calhoun made $160,000 in political contributions from 2002 to 2011 using his names and the names of his relatives, when really the money was coming from his boss, the Washington City Paper reported.
"I would write checks for myself or relatives and get the money back as advance on bonus on my pay stub," Calhoun told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar Kotelly Thursday, according to WJLA.
Calhoun, 65, is an employee of the accounting firm formerly owned by Jeffrey E. Thompson, an influential DC contractor at the center of an investigation related to Vincent Gray's 2010 DC mayoral campaign, the Washington Post reported.
U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. called Thompson’s accounting firm an “assembly line” for donations, the Post reported.
Read more at the The Washington Post, WJLA and Washington City Paper.
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