Providence City Councilor Convicted Of Embezzling $14K

PROVIDENCE, RI — City Councilman Luis Aponte's Providence City Council seat will soon be up for grabs. On Monday, Attorney General Peter Neronha's office announced Aponte pleaded no contest to charges of embezzlement.

As part of his conviction, Aponte, 56, is required to resign his city council seat. He was sentenced to a four-and-a-half-year suspended sentence followed by four-and-a-half more years of probation.

According to Neronha's office, Aponte spent nearly $14,000 of campaign funds from his "Friends of Luis Aponte" account from December 2013 to December 2015 for personal expenses including subscriptions to Netflix and Xbox Live, iTunes, cable bills and gas.

"Today’s felony conviction of former Councilman Luis Aponte for stealing from his campaign funds once again underscores the importance of holding public officials accountable when they break the law and erode the public’s trust in government," Neronha said in a statement. "Using one’s campaign fund to pay personal expenses is a form of public corruption because it may lead to improper influence over official acts, particularly by large-scale donors to whom the public official may feel particularly indebted. Mr. Aponte’s resignation as a result of his felony conviction is welcome news for the people of Providence, who can move forward with representation that is committed to serving them, and no one else."

The case was sent to the office of the AG in September 2016 after the Rhode Island Board of Elections found the inconsistencies during a review of Aponte's campaign expenses. In May 2017, Aponte was indicted by a grand jury and rejected an earlier plea deal in June of this year.