Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that Reginald Fullwood (41, Jacksonville) has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of failure to file federal income tax returns. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud offense, and a year of imprisonment for the failure to file charge. His sentencing hearing has been set for January 9, 2017.
According to court documents, while Fullwood was seeking election to the Florida House of Representatives, as well as during re-election campaigns, he caused numerous electronic funds transfers from the “Reggie Fullwood Campaign” bank account to a bank account of an entity owned by Fullwood, Rhino Harbor, LLC. Fullwood then used those funds, approximately $65,000 in financial contributions, for personal expenses, including restaurants, grocery stores, retail stores, jewelry stores, florists, gas stations, and liquor stores. To conceal his fraudulent embezzlement of campaign funds, Fullwood submitted or caused to be submitted false and fraudulent campaign expenditure reports to the State of Florida, which included inflated and/or non-existent campaign expenses.
In the State of Florida, a candidate, or the spouse of a candidate, may not use funds on deposit in a campaign account to defray normal living expenses for the candidate or the candidate’s family, other than expenses actually incurred for transportation, meals, and lodging during travel in the course of the campaign.
This case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mark B. Devereaux and Jason Mehta.