Indy Politics sits down with former Indiana State Senator Brent Waltz who was convicted violating federal campaign finance law.

Waltz was sentenced in April of 2022 to two felonies: making and receiving conduit contributions, and making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In addition to the 10 months in prison he was also fined $40,500 (the amount he took in contributions) and two years court supervision.

Waltz claimed in a new book that he was set up and was being punished for not cooperating with the federal government’s investigation of lobbyist John Keeler

According to the original indictment filed back in September 2020, Waltz, was a candidate in the 2016 primary election for the office of the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Ninth District of Indiana.

Keeler, the vice president and general counsel of what was then known as New Centaur LLC arranged with Kelley Rogers, a Maryland-based political consultant for the 2016 Waltz congressional campaign, to cause New Centaur LLC to transfer thousands of dollars from its accounts to Rogers, who then contributed that money to Waltz’s 2016 congressional campaign.

To conceal the true nature of the payments as illegal corporate contributions, Keeler and Rogers agreed that Rogers would create phony invoices and agreements that purported to reflect services to be performed for New Centaur LLC, by Rogers.  Upon receiving the payments from New Centaur LLC, Rogers recruited several straw donors, including Waltz, to each contribute $2,700 to Waltz’s campaign, the maximum permitted under federal law at the time.  The straw donors were reimbursed by Rogers using the money from New Centaur LLC.

Rogers also transferred a large portion of the New Centaur LLC money to Waltz, who recruited additional straw donors to each donate $2,700 to his campaign.  Waltz either reimbursed or paid these straw donors in advance.  Waltz and Keeler concealed these illegal contributions from campaign officials, causing them to unwittingly file materially false reports with the Federal Election Commission.

You can hear Waltz in the Leon-Tailored Audio above.  It runs for about 18 minutes.