Waltz
A former Indiana State Senator and Johnson County council member has pled guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws and making false statements to federal investigators.
Brent Waltz, 48, of Greenwood, pled guilty Monday to felony counts of making and receiving conduit contributions and making false statements to the FBI. Waltz faces up to 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana Judge James R. Sweeney II at a later date, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana news release.
Waltz and gaming executive John Keeler were indicted in September 2020 on charges of violating federal campaign finance laws, false statements and falsification of records, for making illegal corporate contributions, and conduit contributions to Waltz’s unsuccessful 2016 congressional campaign. Waltz, a long-time Johnson County resident and Center Grove High School graduate, served on the Johnson County Council from 2000 to 2004 and represented District 36 in the Indiana State Senate from 2004 to 2016. He left to run for Congress in the Ninth District but was defeated in the Republican primary by Rep. Trey Hollingsworth.
Waltz was arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to make conduit contributions, false statements and to obstruct justice; one count of making and receiving conduit contributions; one count of obstruction of justice; and two counts of making false statements related to the scheme. As part of Waltz’s plea agreement, the remaining charges will be dismissed, according to the plea agreement filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana Sunday.
Keeler, of Indianapolis, was charged with one count of conspiracy to make illegal corporate contributions, false statements and to obstruct justice; one count of making illegal corporate contributions, one count of obstruction of justice; and one count of making false statements related to the scheme.
Waltz and Keeler, who at the time was general counsel and vice president for Indiana-based gaming company New Centaur, LLC, allegedly worked with Kelley Rogers, a Maryland-based political consultant, on the scheme, according to the 2020 indictment.
The plan was to transfer thousands of dollars from the accounts of New Centaur to Rogers, who would then contribute that money to Waltz’s 2016 congressional campaign, was hatched at a meeting between Rogers and an unnamed New Centaur executive in April 2015 at the Indianapolis International Airport. Rogers allegedly created fake invoices and agreements to make it appear like he was providing services for New Centaur, and recruited straw donors to each contribute $2,700 to Waltz’s campaign, the federal maximum contribution limit at the time, the indictment says.
A total of 15 straw donors were involved, including three of Waltz’s relatives and one of his business associates. The straw donors are not named in the indictment. Rogers and Chip O’Neil, a Republican strategist who pled guilty in a separate campaign finance violation and fraud case, were responsible for recruiting nine of the straw donors, according to the indictment.
The straw donors were allegedly reimbursed by Rogers, who used the money he received from New Centaur. Rogers and O’Neil also each donated $2,700 to Waltz’s campaign and allegedly reimbursed themselves with money from New Centaur.
Rogers also allegedly transferred money from New Centaur to Waltz, who also recruited straw donors and either reimbursed them or paid them in advance, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
New Centaur transferred a total of $79,500 to entities controlled by Rogers for the scheme, according to the indictment, but Rogers allegedly kept $33,300 of that to pay for his consulting fees for his services to Waltz’s campaign.
A straw donor, as defined in the indictment, is a person who contributes to a campaign in his or her name despite receiving advance payment or reimbursement of all or part of the contribution, acting as an intermediary between the true source of the contribution and the campaign receiving the donation. Federal law says the name and occupation of the donor and the amount and date given must be reported for donations of more than $200.
Waltz also donated $10,800 of his own money to the campaign through straw donors, according to the indictment.
Waltz told the FBI Rogers paid him $12,000 because Waltz’s investment banking company was on retainer with Rogers’ company. Waltz further told the FBI he sold $100,000 in art and other items to loan money to his campaign, but the items were actually gifts, loans and other contributions to his campaign, the indictment says.
Federal Election Commission documents show $152,078 in individual contributions, $113,700 in loans to the campaign from Waltz, and no corporate contributions to the campaign.
The investigation into Waltz’s campaign first became public in January 2020 when O’Neil, a vice president at Strategic Campaign Group and an employee of Rogers, pled guilty to conspiracy in federal court in Virginia. He admitted to helping collect donations from small donors in the names of candidates who never received the money.
O’Neil said in court that at least eight people, including his girlfriend, were used as conduits for illegal corporate donations to a U.S. House candidate in Indiana. Court documents did not reveal the candidate, but Federal Election Commission records indicate the recipient of the funds was Waltz.
Court records implicated an unnamed Indianapolis gaming company and its vice president and general counsel as part of the scheme. The Indiana Gaming Commission later acknowledged the company was Centaur Gaming and the executives were Rod Ratcliff and John Keeler.
Ratcliff has not been charged in connection with the straw donation scheme. He was permanently banned from the state’s gambling industry last year, following his gaming license being suspended due to his connection to the scheme, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported.
The trial for Keeler is scheduled to begin on April 18.
