Top Texas GOP donor resigns from company after admitting to prohibited contributions
James Dannenbaum, a prolific Texas Republican donor and former University of Texas regent, is resigning from his namesake engineering company after admitting to coordinating illegal campaign contributions in 2017.
Dannenbaum, the president and CEO of Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering, was charged Monday with recruiting employees to donate over $20,000 to three congressional candidates in February 2017 and then reimbursing them with corporate funds. It is a felony to set up such "conduit" donations, which typically happen when the offender has already given the maximum amount to campaigns, which was $2,700 per election last cycle.
Dannenbaum "this week acknowledged that he made prohibited contributions to various federal election campaigns," Dannenbaum spokesman Bill Miller said in a statement. "His acknowledgement to the federal government has led to his agreement to plea to this offense and he has agreed to step down as Chairman, President, and CEO. Jim has been active in philanthropy and in the community for over 50 years. He deeply regrets these events."
His resignation was first reported by the Houston Chronicle.
Court records do not name the candidates that benefited from the scheme but say they included two candidates for U.S. House and one for U.S. Senate. Federal Election Commission records show the only U.S. Senate candidate who got donations from Dannenbaum and his employees around February 2017 was John Cornyn, the state's senior senator.
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/11/07/texas-donor-james-dannenbaum-resigns-contributions/
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