Former political operative gets time

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A former conservative operative who was once romantically linked to a Russian agent was sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison in South Dakota.

Paul Erickson had pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering as part of fraudulent investment schemes he operated for many years, the Argus Leader reported.

Erickson was not charged in connection to his romantic relationship with Maria Butina, who was deported in October after admitting she sought to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups and promote Russia’s agenda.

Prosecutors said Erickson concocted multiple investment schemes from 1996 to August 2018, including recruiting investors for a string of elder care homes; developing a wheelchair that allowed a person to use the bathroom from the chair; and home-building in North Dakota’s booming oil fields. He operated his schemes from Sioux Falls.

Judge Karen Schrier listed former classmates, family members and even Erickson’s godmother as victims of his investment schemes.

“You’re a thief, and you have betrayed your friends and family, pretty much everyone you know,” Schreier said.

Schreier said she gave credit to Erickson for pleading guilty and taking responsibility for his crimes before giving him a seven-year sentence, which will be followed with three years of supervised release. A decision on restitution for victims was deferred.

Erickson, described by one of his victims as a “charismatic gentleman,” was the national political director for Pat Buchanan’s challenge to President George H. W. Bush in the 1992 Republican primary. He also worked as a media adviser to John Wayne Bobbitt, the Virginia man maimed by his wife with a kitchen knife in 1993. And he joined with Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist later imprisoned for corruption, in producing an anti-communist action movie.