AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas’ attorney general accepted a $100,000 gift to help pay his own criminal defense from the head of a medical imaging company that his office investigated for Medicaid fraud.
Republican Ken Paxton is charged with two felony counts of securities fraud. He is accused of deceiving investors in a startup before becoming attorney general in 2015.
Preferred Imaging founder James Webb has given Paxton at least $100,000 to cover his legal bills. Webb’s company settled a $3.5 million whistleblower lawsuit this month that was investigated by the U.S. Justice Department and Paxton’s Medicaid fraud unit.
Paxton’s office says federal prosecutors took the lead and that the attorney general had no direct involvement.
Ethics and legal experts say Webb’s donation is not a clear violation of Texas’ loose ethics laws.
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