LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Prosecutors say former Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner was properly convicted on 14 bribery and extortion counts over payments she received from a bond broker to whom she steered state investments.
Federal prosecutors on Friday asked U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes to deny Shoffner’s motion to acquit her conviction last month over the $36,000 in cash payments she received from bond broker Steele Stephens. Shoffner’s attorneys have argued that prosecutors failed to prove that the former treasurer harmed the federal government.
In their filing, prosecutors said they had proven Shoffner’s conduct affected interstate commerce since the bonds were purchased across state lines. They also argued that the investments included some federal grant funds.
Shoffner, a Democrat, resigned from office after she was arrested last year.
Stephens received a larger share of the state’s business - generating $2.4 million in commissions - after he began giving Shoffner money in $6,000 increments, but the ex-treasurer said she wasn’t influenced by the gifts.
“The defendant approached Steele Stephens for money, rather than asking a close friend or family member for financial assistance, because of Steele Stephens’ position as a broker who was attempting to obtain bond business from the state of Arkansas,” prosecutors wrote in Friday’s filing. “Furthermore, Steele Stephens directly participated in interstate commerce through the bond purchases and sales he conducted.”
The defense team has said the payments from Stephens to Shoffner should have been addressed by the Arkansas Ethics Commission, not federal prosecutors.
Stephens testified that he offered Shoffner money to help her through a rough time after her mother died and after she lost her Little Rock apartment. He delivered some of the money at the state Capitol and some, in a pie box, at Shoffner’s Newport home.
Shoffner also faces 10 counts of mail fraud after prosecutors accused her of misspending campaign funds on personal items. She’s pleaded not guilty to those charges, and is set to go to trial in December on them.
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