Ex-congressman TJ Cox to plead guilty to fraud. His plea deal includes a hefty fine
Former Fresno-area Congressman TJ Cox will plead guilty to two counts of fraud related to the 26 federal criminal charges he has faced since 2022, his attorney said in Wednesday.
Cox did not speak in the courtroom or to members of the media, nor did he officially change his plea in the Robert E. Coyle Federal Courthouse in Fresno on Wednesday.
His attorney, Mark Coleman, said Cox had reached a plea deal that dismissed 24 of the charges, and he expected his client to change his plea to “guilty” in the next hearing in January.
“Anytime you’re in business there are thousands of transactions, and people sometimes make shortcuts and it’s something he had to deal with,” Coleman said about the charges.
Prosecutors said Cox stole more than $1.7 million in diverted client payments and company loans and investments. They also alleged Cox created false records and a fraudulent loan guarantee in order to secure a $1.5 million construction loan through a sports nonprofit for improvements at Granite Park, a sports complex in Fresno.
Cox was first offered a plea deal in March for the indictment he faces in Fresno’s U.S. District Court comprised of 15 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of money laundering, a count of financial institution fraud and a count of campaign contribution fraud.
Prosecutors have previously said that without the deal, he faced 20 years in prison for money laundering and wire fraud, 30 years for the fraud against the institution and five years for campaign fraud.
Those penalties also come with fines ranging from $250,000 to $1 million depending on the count.
Coleman said Cox did not want to go to trial.
“Mr. Cox wanted to get this over with,” he said. “We wanted to get it behind him. It’s very stressful for him. It’s very stressful for his family, and he wanted to get it behind him.”
Coleman said after a plea change, he will go into discussions with prosecutors about an appropriate sentence. He said that detail was four to five months away from being determined.
Which counts TJ Cox will plead to
Cox must plead guilty to a wire fraud count, and a count of wire fraud affecting a financial institution, according to the plea agreement, which became public hours after the Wednesday hearing.
He agrees to pay $3.5 million in restitution and will be required to provide records of his financial standings once his plea changes, the deal says.
He is also subject to whatever sentence and fine is determined to be fair by the court.
The arrest and charges
Terrance John Cox surrendered to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on Aug. 16, 2022, the same day he was conditionally released.
The charges date back to business Cox was conducting in 2018, documents show, as well as during his time in Congress. A Democrat, Cox was elected in 2018 by beating out incumbent Republican David Valadao for the seat that covered Kings County and parts of Fresno, Kern and Tulare counties. Valadao retook the seat from Cox in a 2020 rematch.
Federal prosecutors allege Cox perpetrated “multiple fraud schemes” targeting companies he was affiliated with as well as their clients and lenders.
The allegations against Cox, the indictment showed, pertain to his roles in four different ventures. That included Cox as head of a Fresno company aimed at assisting development investment in financially distressed areas through the New Market Tax Credit; a partner in a nonprofit that leased the troubled Granite Park Sports Complex in central Fresno from the city of Fresno; a partner in an almond processing company; and a candidate for Congress in the 2018 election.
The allegations also included alleged campaign contribution violations from straw donors. Prosecutors said he gave more than $25,000 to business associates and family members so they could appear to be donating to his 2018 campaign.
This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 12:56 PM.
