nostral, this ken paxton.
2015: Securities Fraud Charges
The year Paxton assumed the office of attorney general also kicked off a nine-year legal saga over securities fraud felony charges.
Paxton was indicted in the late summer of 2015 over accusations of defrauding investors,
according to Chron. The charges stemmed from accusations that Paxton had encouraged other legislators to invest in McKinney-based company Servergy in 2011 without telling them he would make a commission,
Chron reported. Paxton allegedly misrepresented himself as an investor in the company, which was
charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016.
Paxton and Republican supporters
painted the 2015 indictment as a partisan attack by Democrats. Jim Henson, head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told
Chron at the time that their argument would be difficult to uphold as the legal charges unfolded.
“It’s going to be a little harder to sustain the argument that this was a politically motivated persecution over time,” Henson said. “But my suspicion is that we will not see the attorney general going particularly quietly into the night.”
Paxton, indeed, did not go quietly. After pleading not guilty to the charges, the case was stalled by
disputes over how much the prosecutors should be paid, following pushback by commissioners in Paxton’s hometown of Collin County, according to the
Associated Press. Back and forth changes to the legal venue between Collin County and Houston
further delayed the case.
After nine years, during which time Paxton was reelected as attorney general twice, Paxton
struck a deal with prosecutors in 2024, agreeing to pay about $300,000 in restitution and do community service
with local food pantry organizations in Collin County to get the charges dropped, the
Associated Press reported.
Paxton continued to characterize the case as a “political prosecution” upon its settlement,
according to the Texas Tribune.