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| Feds: Indicted Baltimore state senator confessed to taking cash payments |
| 2018-01-10 |
| [BaltimoreSun] Federal prosecutors revealed in new court documents that indicted state Sen. Nathaniel T. Oaks confessed to taking cash payments in exchange for official business before becoming an FBI cooperator and upending another bribery investigation. The allegations come as Oaks prepares to begin his 30th legislative session in the General Assembly, which begins Wednesday. While the U.S. attorney’s office says Oaks confessed both to taking cash payments and to interfering with an investigation, he has pleaded not guilty and has a trial scheduled for mid-April, right after the legislative session concludes. Neither Oaks nor his defense attorney could be reached for comment Friday evening. Oaks, a Baltimore Democrat, is accused of taking $15,300 in cash from someone he thought was a “wealthy Texas businessman” but who was working for the FBI, prosecutors said in the new filing. After agreeing to cooperate with investigators, Oaks recorded himself accepting a $2,600 cash payment from an FBI target under a table at an Annapolis restaurant in March 2017 and told the target he would talk to legislators about a bill favorable to the bail-bond industry, federal prosecutors wrote. But in subsequent encounters, at a St. Patrick’s Day party at an Annapolis bar and separately before a caucus meeting, Oaks told the FBI target: “I’m going to ask you for something. Just say no,” according to court documents. The person who gave the $2,600 to Oaks, identified in court papers only as “Person #1,” was confronted by the FBI, and prosecutors say he admitted paying Oaks and another undisclosed elected official thousands of dollars over the years. The person paid for parties hosted by Oaks, as well as round-trip flights and hotel rooms in Las Vegas, according to documents. Oaks was convicted in 1989 of stealing thousands of dollars out of his campaign account while serving in the House of Delegates. He regained his seat in 1994 and was appointed to the state Senate last year to replace a legislator who stepped down because of ill health. His salary as a state senator is $50,330 a year. The person targeted by the FBI using Oaks told authorities that he needed the senator to support legislation favorable to the bail-bond industry, according to court documents. The documents say the person had ownership interests in a bail bond business as well as a company that provided home health care services. The role of cash bail in pretrial release was one of the most heavily debated and aggressively lobbied issues of the 2017 session. |
| Posted by:Bright Pebbles |
| #5 I'm shocked - they identified him as a Democrat in the 4th paragraph! That's so that when the appeals reach the 9th Circus Court of Appeals, Nathaniel(D) will be judged as not quilty. |
| Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-01-10 20:57 |
| #4 Well, if you're gonna take it, take it in cash. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2018-01-10 15:14 |
| #3 They identified him in the the first paragraph due to the missing (R) after his name. Like the old Soviet papers, Americans have to learn to read the style to get to the real information. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-01-10 08:31 |
| #2 I'm shocked - they identified him as a Democrat in the 4th paragraph! |
| Posted by: Raj 2018-01-10 00:43 |
| #1 back in the 80s Oaks was convicted of a number of crimes, including stealing campaign funds; he appealed and some of the charges were thrown out but not all of them |
| Posted by: lord garth 2018-01-10 00:18 |