A California lobbyist and a former Chief of Staff to an elected official pleaded guilty to multiple conspiracy charges, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of California.<\/p>\n
Greg Campbell, 52, of Davis, pleaded guilty Dec. 4 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit offenses against the United States. On Nov. 20, Sean McCluskie, 56, of Davis, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, in 2021, McCluskie was the Chief of Staff to an elected official and continued in that role when the official was confirmed to a United States government position. Between February 2022 and September 2024, Campbell and McCluskie conspired with Dana Williamson, 53, of Carmichael, and others to steal approximately $225,000 in funds from the elected official\u2019s dormant political campaign for McCluskie\u2019s personal use in order to pay for McCluskie\u2019s bicoastal lifestyle.<\/p>\n
Collectively, they funneled the money through various business entities and disguised it as pay for what was, in reality, a no-show job for McCluskie\u2019s spouse.<\/p>\n
In July 2024, at Williamson\u2019s request, Campbell had three fake retroactive contracts created to respond to a subpoena Williamson had received questioning her company\u2019s eligibility for PPP\u00a0loans and loan forgiveness. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provided forgivable loans to small businesses to help them keep employees on the payroll during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Lobbying firms were not eligible to receive PPP loans. Campbell signed the fake contracts, which made it appear as though Williamson provided only non-lobbying services to her clients, and her firm was only a subcontractor for Campbell\u2019s independently owned lobbying firm.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 12, a 23-count indictment was unsealed, charging Williamson with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct justice, subscribing to false tax returns and making false statements. The charges are only allegations; Williamson is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n
These cases are the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS\u00a0Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael D. Anderson, Rosanne Rust, and Katherine T. Lydon, and Public Integrity Section Trial Attorney Alexandre Dempsey are prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n
A status of sentencing hearing for both Campbell and McCluskie is set for Feb. 26, 2026, before Chief U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley. The next court date for Williamson is a status conference set for Dec. 11 at 9:30 a.m. before Chief Judge Nunley.<\/p>\n
Campbell and McCluskie face a maximum statutory penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count of conspiracy.<\/p>\n
If convicted, Williamson faces a maximum statutory penalty of 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud; up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of wire fraud; up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of conspiracy to obstruct and making a false statements; and up to three years in prison and a $100,000 fine for each count of subscribing to a false tax return.<\/p>\n
The actual sentences, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California lobbyist and a former Chief of Staff to an elected official pleaded guilty to multiple conspiracy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,179,181,23,100,180],"class_list":{"0":"post-84147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-community","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newsletter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}