Texas AG Ken Paxton could be deposed about securities fraud case

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Attorney General Ken Paxton will face legal professionals for the lads who accused him of securities fraud seven years in the past in a one-hour deposition after the November elections.

The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday that Collin County District Court Judge Cynthia Wheless ordered Paxton to sit down for the deposition on Nov. 28, three weeks after the end result of Paxton’s reelection race. He is working towards Democrat Rochelle Garza.

Paxton didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark by his authorities or marketing campaign places of work. Phil Hilder, the lawyer representing Paxton in his securities fraud case, declined remark.

Paxton is dealing with a troublesome problem from Garza, with two current polls exhibiting the two-term incumbent up by solely 2 percentage points and 3 percentage points, respectively. Legal challenges have troubled him for years, together with in the course of the GOP main earlier this 12 months, when three opponents highlighted the authorized scandals. On high of the securities fraud case, Paxton additionally faces a whistleblower lawsuit from former high deputies who accused him of abuse of workplace. An FBI investigation stemmed from these allegations.

The deposition is a part of a lawsuit that’s separate however associated to the seven-year-old securities fraud indictment during which two males, Byron Cook and Joel Hochberg, accuse Paxton of encouraging them to spend money on McKinney-based expertise firm Servergy Inc., with out disclosing he would make a fee from these investments. Cook is a former state legislator who served within the Texas House with Paxton.

A 12 months after Paxton was indicted on three felony fees alleging securities regulation violations, an affiliate of his, Charles “Chip” Loper III, sued Cook and Hochberg, accusing them of making a scheme to revenue off the funding funds of Unity Resources, a mineral property firm. Loper mentioned the scheme damage him and his father financially.

Cook and Hochberg’s legal professionals mentioned that lawsuit was retaliatory. Last 12 months, they had been in a position so as to add Paxton as a “responsible third party” to the case by arguing that he was additionally an investor and the corporate’s lawyer. As such, they mentioned, Paxton ought to be held answerable for any alleged wrongdoing.

In a deposition within the Unity case, Cook and Hochberg’s legal professionals can ask Paxton about his different securities fraud case.

Paxton has denied wrongdoing in each instances. He faces as much as 99 years in jail if convicted within the securities fraud case tied to Servergy.

Cook and Hochberg’s legal professionals had tried to depose him twice over the summer time within the Unity case, however Paxton’s authorized workforce had mentioned the lawyer normal had scheduling conflicts. He was deposed within the Unity case as soon as earlier than in August 2019, however data of that deposition stay underneath seal, in line with The Dallas Morning News.

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