Ex-GOP candidate for Congress charged in fraud

PROVIDENCE — Federal prosecutors have charged former Rhode Island Republican congressional candidate H. Russell Taub with siphoning more than $1 million in political donations for personal use and have reached a plea deal with him, according to court documents.

Taub, who lost a 2016 challenge to U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, is set to be arraigned Friday afternoon on single counts of wire fraud and violating federal election law.

Last summer a Washington ethics watchdog filed a complaint against Taub with the Federal Elections Commission, alleging his Keeping America in Republican Control Political Action Committee was a "scam" violating campaign finance reporting requirements.

A set of charges filed last week by the U.S. Justice Department's Public Integrity Section say Taub, of Cranston, solicited more than $1.6 million through KAIRC and an affiliated Ohio PAC, but that the majority of the contributions never made their way toward helping GOP candidates.

Instead, prosecutors say Taub withdrew "nearly $100,000" in cash, transferred more than $715,000 into his personal bank accounts, and spent more than $217,000 on personal expenses including airfare, hotel rooms, restaurant meals, clothes, cigars, strip club visits and "escort services."

The donations Taub did spend in the political arena he spent illegally, according to the charges.

He advertised KAIRC as a "Super PAC" and took advantage of that designation to raise donations in excess of the $5,000 individual limit. But prosecutors say he made more than $215,000 in donations directly to the campaigns of federal candidates, illegal for Super PACs under federal law.

Taub's PACs received contributions from more than 160 donors, the largest being from an unidentified married couple in Ohio.

Taub's appeals to donors often used the name of former secretary of the Navy and Rhode Islander J. William Middendorf. But according to court documents, a lawyer for a "former ambassador and high-level military officer" wrote letters to Taub demanding he stop using their client's name without his permission. Taub continued to use it as recently as last November, according to the charges.

Under the terms of a proposed plea deal filed with the court, Taub would forfeit any asset worth more than $1,000, any funds he received through his PACs and pay restitution to the victims.

He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Attempts to reach Taub by phone and email Wednesday were unsuccessful.

In its complaint to the FEC last year, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust raised concerns about Taub's claim to be "ambassador" to the International Human Rights Commission, which it described as a Ukrainian organization founded not long after KAIRC in 2014.

The federal charges against Taub filed this month do not mention Ukraine or the International Human Rights Commission.

Last April, Taub hosted a fundraiser at The Chanler at Cliff Walk hotel in Newport attended by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. The fundraiser prompted an ethics complaint from an Iowa citizens group.

Although the Keeping America in Republican Control PAC does not show up in the FEC campaign finance database, FEC filings show Taub personally has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to congressional candidates and GOP PACs this election cycle.

As recently as last fall, Taub was working to block Senate confirmation of Mary McElroy to the federal bench in Rhode Island.