Shaun Brown. a Democrat currently running for a House seat in Virginia has been indicted on charges of theft, fraud, and embezzlement for events that allegedly transpired in 2012.
Though she intends to fight these charges she is scheduled to appear in court in mid-January and will be pleading not guilty.
According to the prosecution, she received over $800,000 in funds through her own nonprofit organization. The nonprofit is an involved in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program.
The problem… they allege that Brown funneled funds out of her nonprofit by filing false reimbursement claims with the Virginia Department of Health.
And according to The Washington Post, she and others involved told employees of the nonprofit to inflate figures for the number of meals served to low-income households with her organization pocketing the excess.
Shaun Brown went on to acknowledge “irregularities” within the program itself and she hopes to see it fixed, saying: “I want the irregularities corrected,” she said. “I want to see the program improve.”
Brown actually filed a suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Virginia Department of Health and others earlier in December alleging that they’re discriminating against African-Americans, delayed payments, falsified reimbursements and claims for reimbursement, Fox News reported.
She and her mother, Jenever Brown, who co-founded the nonprofit, are seeking $10 million in damages, the report said.
In 2016, Brown ran against now-U.S. Rep. Scott W. Taylor, a Republican, for Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District seat and lost by 23 points, the Washington Post reported.
Brown stated in July she intends to run for the seat again in 2018 — we’ll see how that goes.
“I’m in,” Brown said. “There’s such a concern about building a resistance movement and a firewall against the Trump administration. I believe we have to not just build a firewall, but we have to talk about what we are going to do as the Democratic Party.”
