AG Ken Paxton’s partner in sleazy business Fritz Mowery was also in court on Monday.
Best mugshot ever
Mowery Capital Management, a McKinney-based investment firm with ties to recently indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton, presented false documents to state investigators and misled its clients by lying about a past bankruptcy, two administrative law judges said [last] Friday.
Judges Henry Card and Steven Rivas filed the proposed order Friday, finding that Mowery Capital and its head, long-time Paxton friend and business associate Frederick “Fritz” Mowery, violated state securities laws by sending clients a brochure that said he had not filed for bankruptcy – when in fact he had – and for presenting altered documents to staff with the Texas State Securities Board.
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While the securities board commissioner has the authority to put Mowery and his firm out of business for these violations, Card and Rivas recommend that he not.
The state board will likely oppose the recommendation, however, telling the Chronicle on Monday it can take issue with Card and Rivas’ order when it “misstates evidence or incorrectly applies the law.”
“Although the administrative law judges found that Mowery and Mowery Capital Management engaged in fraudulent conduct, which constitutes the basis for the revocation of their registrations, the staff of the Texas State Securities Board is likely to file exceptions to numerous findings by the (administrative law judges),” said Texas State Securities Board Spokesman Bob Elder, in a statement to the Chronicle.
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The state board will now have 15 days to file its exceptions with Card and Rivas. The judges will then consider the response and can accept some or all of the changes. If the parties cannot come to an agreement, the case could ultimately end up in state district court.
See here and here for the background. I personally think that being put out of business, then being hit with a blizzard of lawsuits, would be an appropriate remedy here. We’ll see what happens next. In the meantime, remember that scammers like Mowery, and by extension Paxton, tend to cheat friends and like-minded individuals. You have to gain someone’s trust in order to get them to give you their money on something that may sound too good to be true otherwise, and it’s easier to gain someone’s trust if that person thinks you’re cut from a similar bolt of cloth. If there’s a real weakness to the political support Ken Paxton still has, it will come from the voices of the fellow conservative Republicans who lost money thanks to him and Fritz Mowery. Keep an eye on that. Trail Blazers has more.