Former Connecticut Gov. Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison on Corruption Charges

Photo by Bob Falcetti/Getty Images(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) — Former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Wednesday for concealing the extent of his involvement in two federal election campaigns.

“It is disheartening that an individual who once held two of our country’s highest elected offices, and who also served time in prison for a previous federal conviction, chose to deceive voters and violate laws that were established to ensure fair and open elections,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gustafson said.

Evidence presented during a trial found that Rowland “devised a scheme to work for the campaign of a candidate seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District during the 2009 and 2010 election cycle, and to conceal from the Federal Election Commission and the public that he would be paid to perform that work,” a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut said. Rowland also drafted a sham consulting contract through which he claimed he was performing work for a separate corporate entity owned by the candidate he was assisting.

Rowland also concealed his involvement in the campaign of another candidate seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District, Lisa Wilson-Foley.

Rowland was found guilty of two counts of falsification of records in a federal investigation, one count of conspiracy, two counts of causing false statements to be made to the FEC and two counts of causing illegal campaign contributions in September 2014. He had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud and tax fraud in December 2004.

Wilson-Foley and her husband each pleaded guilty to conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions in March 2014.

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