Annapolis Political Consultant Pleads Guilty To Wire Fraud

ANNAPOLIS, MD — An Annapolis political consultant has pleaded guilty to wire fraud as a result of his fraudulent scheme to solicit millions of dollars in political contributions through several scam-PACs that he founded and advertised as supporting candidates for office and other political causes.

Kelley Rogers, 55, of Annapolis, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady of the Eastern District of Virginia. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 17, 2020.

“Rogers defrauded countless citizens across the country who sought to participate in the political process, and instead used the money to benefit himself and to perpetuate his fraudulent scheme,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in a statement.

According to Assistant Director in Charge Timothy R. Slater of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Rogers "swindled millions of dollars from individuals attempting to participate in our democratic process.”

“Instead of using donations to provide assistance and support to military veterans, as he advertised, Rogers used the money to benefit himself and his associates," he said.

According to admissions Rogers made in connection with his guilty plea, from August 2012 through 2018, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the defendant operated multiple PACs, including Conservative StrikeForce (CSF), Conservative Majority Fund and Tea Party Majority Fund. In that role, the defendant engaged vendors to send e-mail solicitations and make telemarketing phone calls to prospective donors seeking political contributions to his PACs. Rogers approved the text and other content of all solicitations, and determined how CSF spent the contributions individual donors gave in response to the solicitations.

During the course of his scheme, Rogers solicited contributions from the general public for his PACs based on materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises. In or around 2013, Rogers, working with an email vendor, represented through CSF that money contributed by donors would be used to support the campaigns of a candidate for governor and a candidate for attorney general of Virginia through, among other things, get-out-the-vote efforts and the hiring of attorneys to ensure the integrity of the elections.

In or around 2014, Rogers represented that donations to the PAC would be spent on assistance and support for military veterans. The defendant instead spent nearly all of the money raised from donors to benefit himself, his associates and his PACs, including by pouring the majority of donor money into the solicitation of more donations, the court stated.

In addition to the misrepresentations that Rogers made to donors, Rogers and others fraudulently billed his PACs for services that were not performed, thereby misappropriating donor money that had been contributed to the PACs by individuals across the country. Rogers and his associates also made false statements to the Federal Election Commission about how they were spending PAC money.

Rogers admitted that he and several others also participated in a scheme to use conduits (“straw donors”) to make contributions to a candidate running to represent a district in the United States House of Representatives that exceeded the limits placed on individual campaign contributions under federal law.

As part of his guilty plea, Rogers agreed to pay $491,299.00 in restitution to victims of his fraud scheme, as well as a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $208,954.00.