Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe acknowledged Wednesday that he invested $47,000 in a business operated by Joseph Caramadre, who recently pled guilty to charges of “fraud, conspiracy, and identity theft” in a federal courtroom in Providence, Rhode Island.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Providence Journal reported that, according to federal prosecutors, Caramadre and his associates “stole identities of terminally ill people. They then used that information to purchase investments his clients profited from after the people died.”
According to Virginia’s NBC 12, “Caramadre was also a donor to McAuliffe’s failed 2009 bid for the Democratic nomination for governor of Virginia. Caramadre donated more than $26 thousand to McAuliffe and hosted a fundraiser for the candidate.”
Terry McAuliffe was not indicted in the case, but the Providence Journal reported that his name was on a list of investors in Caramadre’s admitted scheme, presented in court on Wednesday by federal prosecutors “in their effort to prove that Caramadre and his former employee, Raymour Radhakrishnan, caused more than $46 million in losses to insurance companies through an investment approach that used the identities of terminally ill people.”
As part of his guilty plea, Caramadre has agreed to make restitution to his victims. The hearing Wednesday was to determine the amount of that restitution.
Rhode Island’s NBC News 10 I-Team reported that “there is no evidence that the investors knew that Caramadre was stealing the identities of the terminally ill patients.”
McAuliffe campaign spokesperson Josh Schwerin told NBC 12 “that McAuliffe and his campaign would donate the equivalent of the campaign donations from Caramadre to the American Cancer Society. $27 thousand from the campaign. $47 thousand from the candidate himself. The $27 thousand was to return campaign contributions. The $47 thousand was for the investment into Caramadre’s business venture.”