FORMER MAJORITY LEADER OF THE OKLAHOMA STATE SENATE SENTENCED IN CAMPAIGN FINANCE CONSPIRACY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Acting Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray of the Criminal Division announced that James E. Lane, 69, of McAlester, Oklahoma, was sentenced today before U.S. District Judge James Robertson for his role in a conspiracy to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and to obstruct a Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigation into the 1998 congressional race for Oklahoma’s Third Congressional District.

Judge Robertson sentenced Lane, Roberts’ campaign aide and the former Majority Leader of the Oklahoma State Senate, to three years’ probation and two months of home confinement with electronic monitoring. Lane was also fined $5,000.

Lane pleaded guilty on March 28, 2003, to conspiracy to cause the submission of false statements to the FEC, in felony violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 1001. In connection with his plea, Lane admitted that he used approximately $46,000 of former Oklahoma State Senator Gene Stipe’s money to pay expenses for the Roberts campaign without reporting those expenditures to the FEC. This caused the Roberts campaign to file several false campaign expenditure reports between May and September 1998. Lane also admitted to knowing and willful violations of the FECA.

The FEC investigated fund-raising abuses that occurred during the Roberts campaign, including an allegation that Lane paid Roberts $20,500 for the purchase of a trailer that never occurred, and that the money was deposited into the Roberts campaign coffers and never reported to the FEC. Lane admits that he provided false and misleading statements about the trailer transaction during a sworn deposition to the FEC on June 7, 2000.

Congressional candidate Walter L. Roberts and former Oklahoma State Senator Gene Stipe’s aide Charlene Spears were sentenced by Judge Robertson on July 15, 2003, for their roles in the conspiracy. Stipe’s sentencing is set for August 28, 2003.

This case was prosecuted by trial attorneys Howard Sklamberg and Matthew Solomon of Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, Noel L. Hillman, Section Chief, U.S. Department of Justice, and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Oklahoma City Division, after a criminal referral by the FEC.

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