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Ten years, $271,000 and 100 hours of community service later, fraud charges brought against Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton have been dismissed by the state.
A Collin County grand jury brought the charges in 2015, the same year Paxton became Texas’ chief legal officer. Paxton was accused of soliciting investors in a Texas-based tech startup while failing to disclose his own financial stake in the company.
Paxton pleaded not guilty to the multiple securities fraud charges brought against him. In March 2024, he agreed to a pretrial diversion agreement that kept the case from going to trial just weeks before it was set to begin without requiring Paxton to plead guilty. That agreement required 100 hours of community service at a Collin County nonprofit, 30 hours of ethics training and a restitution payment of $271,000 to his accusers.
“To be sure, justice was delayed. But to be equally sure, justice was not denied because today’s resolution was the fair, right and just outcome for both sides,” special prosecutors Brian Wice and Jed Silverman said in a joint statement Wednesday.
Paxton faced similar federal charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but they were dropped. According to the SEC, Paxton convinced fellow Texas House members to invest in the tech group Servergy and was given a commission of some shares afterwards. When Paxton asked to pay for the shares, the company’s founder, William Mapp, responded, “God doesn’t want me to take your money.”
Dan Cogdell, an attorney who has represented Paxton through his 2023 impeachment trial before the Texas Senate and various federal investigations, posted to Instagram Wednesday that the dismissal of the fraud charges marked an end to “the decade long saga of the trials and tribulations of Ken Paxton.
“At the risk of throwing my shoulder out of socket patting myself on the back … our team prevailed,” Cogdell wrote. “Ten years. Helluva slog.”
If Paxton had failed to meet his diversion agreement requirements, he could have faced trial, and if convicted, he could have spent decades behind bars. He would also have lost his position as the head of Texas’ judicial branch.
Instead, the dismissal comes just two months after Paxton declared his campaign for Senate. He is vying to defeat longtime incumbent John Cornyn. According to the New York Times, early polling by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates found that Paxton would lead Cornyn by 25 points in a Republican primary.
