FRESNO, Calif. – Former Democratic San Joaquin Valley Congressman TJ Cox has agreed to plead guilty to two charges of financial crimes as part of a plea deal confirmed to KVPR on Wednesday.
In exchange for a guilty plea, federal prosecutors plan to drop almost all of the charges that led to Cox’s indictment in 2022.
In a plea agreement filed in federal court, Cox is agreeing to plead guilty to two charges of wire fraud. It’s all that remains from the 28 original charges that included money laundering and campaign contribution fraud.
According to the plea agreement, from 2013 to 2019, Cox diverted checks and other payments to companies he co-owned in order to pay personal and business expenses.
Prosecutors described the actions as “a material scheme and artifice to defraud others of money and property, and to obtain money and property from others by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises.”
The plea agreement also outlines how Cox defrauded a lender in order to secure a $1.5 million construction loan related to improvements at a Fresno sports complex known as Granite Park.
Cox appeared briefly in federal court on Wednesday in downtown Fresno. His attorney Mark Coleman spoke to the press following the brief hearing.
“You're never happy when a client pleads guilty, but it gives us the opportunity to argue for a sentence we believe is appropriate,” Coleman said.
He acknowledged Cox made mistakes in his many business dealings.
“People sometimes make shortcuts and it’s something he had to deal with,” he said.
Cox, of Fresno, was elected to Congress in 2018 after defeating Congressman David Valadao by a slim margin. Cox served one term before Valadao regained his seat 2020.
Earlier this fall, Cox and his wife Kathleen Murphy filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. His next hearing is scheduled for January. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
