PROVIDENCE, RI
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a 53-year-old former Rhode Island speaker of the house and former vice-chairman of the city of Providence Board of Licenses to three years in prison for stealing $108,000 donated by campaign workers, according to authorities.
Gordon D. Fox, East Providence, used the money to pay for personal expenses, officials said.
Fox also acceptance of a $52,000 bribe to advocate and move for issuance of a liquor license for an East Side restaurant while serving as Vice-Chairman of the City of Providence Board of Licenses in 2008.
Additionally, he failed to report for these illegal sources of income on his tax returns
U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi also ordered Fox to serve two years’ supervised release upon completion of his prison term, and to pay $109,000 in restitution. Fox pleaded guilty on March 3 to wire fraud, bribery and filing a false tax return.
Fox apologized for his crimes.
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Fox has been ordered to self-surrender to begin serving his prison sentence by July 7, 2015.
The investigation included court authorized search warrants at Fox’s home and State House office in March 2014, the issuance of more than 200 subpoenas and the examination of more than 36,000 bank, government, personal and campaign records, officials said.
U. S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha commented, “It is a great irony that the man in Rhode Island once most responsible for securing the passage of laws somewhere along the way decided he no longer needed to follow them. And the laws former Speaker Fox chose not to follow were not just any laws, but rather laws designed to ensure the integrity of the legal and political process. In short, he violated his oath to the people of Rhode Island. He promised to do their business, not his own. His failure to keep that promise has brought him down today, and deservedly so.
Fox admitted that he repeatedly used money received from campaign donors to pay for personal expenses, officials said.
After transferring the money from his campaign accounts to his personal accounts, former Speaker Fox used the money—$108,000 in all—to pay the mortgage on his home, the loan payments on his car, and the balance on his personal American Express card, which he used to make purchases at various retail outlets, officials said.
The former speaker of the house admitted that in order to conceal his fraudulent conduct, he falsified his mandatory Rhode Island Board of Elections filings.
Additionally, Fox told the judge that in 2008, while serving as an appointed member and Vice-Chairman of the City of Providence Board of Licenses, he accepted a $52,000 bribe from the owners of Shark Sushi Bar and Grill to help secure a liquor license for the establishment, according to officials.
At the time, there was considerable neighborhood opposition to the application.
At a hearing in August 2008, Vice-Chairman Fox spoke in detail regarding why the liquor license should be awarded, and moved the Board to approve the Shark Bar’s application.
The Board voted to approve the Shark Bar’s application.
Additionally, Fox admitted that for the tax years 2008 through 2012, he filed false tax returns, in that he knowingly omitted personal income he received as a result of his receipt of the bribe in 2008 and his fraudulent transfers from his campaign accounts to his personal accounts, officials stated.
“Public servants are entrusted by all of us to act in the best interests of the citizens they serve,” said Special Agent William Offord, IRS Criminal Investigation. “Gordon Fox betrayed the public’s trust and his sentencing today sends a clear message—corruption at all levels of government will not be tolerated. IRS-CI will continue to lend our financial expertise to these important prosecutions.”