Former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, 63, and his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, 35, were arrested Tuesday on federal fraud charges following an extensive investigation into both. In 2019, the previous Speaker of the House resigned from his position. He did not run for re-election this year and is the first current or former member of the Tennessee House of Representatives to be prosecuted.
Glen Casada and Cothren appeared in federal court and pleaded not guilty to the charges. If found guilty, the accused could face up to 20 years in prison. Glen Casada and Cothren were indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with conspiracy to commit theft from federally funded programs, bribery and kickbacks in connection with federally funded programs, honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to a news release. from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.
If I can do it to Glen Casada and Cade Cothren, then I can do it to anyone who uses a fictitious name to commit fraud; steals from federal funds; carries out money laundering; commit wire fraud; or receives bribes and kickbacks
— Brad Batt for TN State Sanity ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾 (@bradbatt) August 23, 2022
The relationship between Glen Casada and Cade Cothren and “Matthew Phoenix”
Federal authorities arrested Glen Casada and Cade Cothren at their homes. The former Speaker of the House of Representatives is accused of operating a political consulting firm under the pseudonym “Matthew Phoenix” to receive money for personal gain.
The Ministry of Justice stated in a press release:
“In October 2019, while representing Tennessee House District 63, Casada, Cothren and another co-conspirator, also a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, engaged in a fraudulent scheme to enrich themselves by using Casada’s and another co-conspirator’s official positions as legislators to obtain state approval Phoenix Solutions as the Mailer program provider to provide constituent mail services to members of the Tennessee General Assembly.”
It went on to say:
“In fact, Cothren ran Phoenix Solutions, and Casada, Cothren and a third conspirator allegedly knew that ‘Matthew Phoenix’ was a fake and secretly benefited from the fake company.”
They would submit false invoices to the state government in the name of Glen Casada and the consulting firms of the third conspirator. In 2020, these companies and Phoenix Solutions received approximately $51,947 in government payments related to the mailing program. During the trial, Speaker of the House of Representatives Cameron Sexton testified and promised the authorities his full cooperation in the matter.
“Tennessee will not tolerate public corruption, government fraud or bribery at any level. Over the past two years, our legislature has worked together to take major steps throughout this investigation, including legislation to improve campaign finance controls and new ethical standards for elected officials and employees.”
Sexton continued:
“Today is a fantastic day for Tennesseans because we have not ignored these illegal actions.”
House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, said:
“We are elected to serve the public, and when that trust is broken, it is extremely demoralizing and undermines our citizens’ faith in government.”
Camper went on to say:
“However, this underscores how urgently campaign finance reform is still needed and that the bipartisan legislation already approved must go much further.”
Casada announced in November 2021 that he would retire at the end of 2022.
Categories: Entertaintment
Source: HIS Education