The US Department of Justice announced Tuesday that former speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Glen Casada has been sentenced to 36 months of incarceration for honest services wire fraud, money laundering, and using a fictitious name to carry out a fraud, among other crimes. His former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, was also sentenced to 30 months.

The charges stem from a conspiracy between Casada, Cothren and former state representative Robin Smith. According to the Justice Department, while the two former representatives were still in office, they leveraged their positions to direct state funds to Cothren’s political consulting firm, Phoenix Solutions. Cothren was fraudulently operating Phoenix Solutions under the name of Matthew Phoenix to conceal his poor reputation.

The Tennessee Posting and Printing Allowance  (PPA) provides each representative with $3,000 for constituent communications expenses. Casada and Smith pressured government officials to direct payments for such services to Phoenix Solutions. They also approached other state legislators to convince them to give campaign and caucus business to the firm. None of these officials and legislators were aware that Cothren was operating the business under a false identity. Additionally, Cothren submitted a fraudulent W-9 form to the state under the name of Matthew Phoenix. Both Casada and Smith received kickbacks from the company for their involvement.

Honest services wire fraud is defined under 18 USC §1346 of the US criminal code. The provision states that, for the purposes of mail and other fraud offenses, a “scheme or artifice to defraud” includes depriving “another of the intangible right of honest services.”

The Justice Department stated, “Tennesseans have a right to expect honest services from their elected leaders and their staffs.” Special Agent in Charge at the FBI Joe Carrico added, “Mr. Casada and Mr. Cothren violated the integrity of our government.” Following their convictions in May, Casada and Cothren now face thousands of dollars in fines and one year of supervised release in addition to their imprisonment.

Casada resigned as Speaker after losing a no-confidence vote in 2019, amid multiple scandals involving sexually explicit and racist text messages, as well as past drug use.