AP News, June 23rd, 2007
A millionaire businessman accused of funneling money to Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign to secure approval for a planned casino agreed to plead guilty to lesser federal charges on Friday.
Under the agreement, charges of fraud and lying to the FBI that carried up to 25 years in prison were dropped in exchange for Dennis Troha's guilty plea to two misdemeanors charges of exceeding federal campaign donation limits, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said.
Troha, who plans to enter his guilty pleas within two weeks, gave the Democratic Party about $25,000 and President Bush about $18,000 between 2002 and this year, using relatives as intermediaries, according to court records and the Federal Election Commission.
Troha has given money to Republicans and Democrats, at the state and federal level, but it was his donations to the Democratic governor that raised the most scrutiny. Troha has been a longtime advocate for locating a casino in Kenosha and had been the lead developer of a project with the Menominee Tribe until just days before the indictment was released in March.
Doyle and Troha have repeatedly denied that the donations were tied to expected approval of the casino.
Doyle will not return any of the $200,000 he has gotten from Troha and his relatives since 2002, said Mike Tate, a spokesman for the governor's campaign. "There's nothing in this agreement to suggest that any contribution to the Doyle campaign was improper," he said.
Troha has since sold his share of the casino project in Kenosha to the Connecticut-based Mohegan Tribe.
He also agreed to assist prosecutors as part of an ongoing investigation. His attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, declined to say whether he expected other indictments to come as a result of that cooperation.
As part of the plea deal, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard agreed not to pursue state charges related to the alleged activities that led to the federal charges.
