Shays' Ex-Campaign Manager Will Plead Guilty

U.S. Rep. Chris Shays’ ex-campaign manager will plead guilty next week to taking a quarter million dollars from his boss, the Associated Press reports.

Soon after Shays’ unsuccessful run for re-election, his team realized that money was missing, and the suspicion turned to Michael Sohn, of Fairfield, who is accused of embezzling about $250,000 in campaign funds.

Sohn’s attorney, H. James Pickerstein, told The Associated Press on Friday that Sohn will plead guilty to campaign finance and tax violation charges next Thursday.

The Connecticut Post obtained court documents in February that say Sohn took about $83,000 in campaign checks written to himself, withdrew $70,000 from ATMs, took $16,000 in payroll money, $11,000 in cell phone charges and $11,000 in other unapproved spending.

Sohn had worked for nearly six years as campaign manager for Shays, a moderate Republican who served 10 terms in Congress. Shays narrowly lost to Democrat Jim Himes in 2008 in the race for the 4th District in southwestern Connecticut that he had represented for 21 years.

Shays was thinking about re-entering the world of politics and running for governor, but recently said he could not afford it.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us