The newly unsealed federal indictment of former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh pieces together some answers to lingering questions people have grappled with since the Democrat resigned from office in May amid questions over her business dealings.
Federal prosecutors charged Pugh with 11 counts of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy in what they allege was a corrupt scheme involving sales of her self-published children’s book series, “Healthy Holly.”
The 34-page indictment — along with a plea deal from her longtime aide Gary Brown Jr. — shed new light on the way she allegedly sold and re-sold her books and pocketed the proceeds to pay for a bigger house and pad her campaign chest. Roslyn Wedington, the director of a nonprofit Pugh championed, also pleaded guilty in the investigation.
Prosecutors say Pugh did it to unlawfully enrich herself, promote her political career and illegally fund her mayoral run. She is expected to turn herself in to U.S. Marshals and appear Thursday in U.S. District Court in downtown Baltimore. Her attorney, Steve Silverman, declined to comment on the charges Wednesday.
Below are few of the key points from the indictment:
*Pugh vastly under reported her income to the IRS, prosecutors say.
*Books were allegedly stashed in several locations, including government offices, and reused to fill new orders.
*Baltimore schools decided not to use the books after copy editing them.
*UMMS would go on to give Pugh $500,000 for five orders of books.
*Pugh allegedly used Healthy Holly funds to purchase a new house.