Former MD State Delegate Receives 6-Month Sentence For Fraud

GREENBELT, MARYLAND -- Former Maryland State Delegate Tawanna P. Gaines, 67, was sentenced Friday to six months in federal prison for converting campaign funds for personal use, according to a Justice Department release. This will be followed by three years of supervised release, including two months of home detention with electric monitoring.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang sentenced Gaines Jan. 3 on a federal wire fraud charge. Gaines was convicted of converting over $22,000 in campaign funds to her personal use. In addition, Gaines was ordered to pay restitution and forfeit $22,565.03, which is how much was lost due to her fraud.

“Tawanna Gaines betrayed the public trust by using her position in the Maryland House of Delegates to enrich herself, at the expense of her constituents,” said U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur, who announced the sentence today along with Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office. “Our elected officials are entrusted to make decisions in the best interests of the people they represent. We will pursue and prosecute those who break that trust and bring them to justice.”

Gaines represented District 22 in the Maryland State House from December 2001-Oct. 17, 2019. She held exclusive control over a PayPal account that accepted electronic donations for "Friends of Tawanna P. Gaines" (FTPG), the financial entity that collected funds for her campaign from June 2002 to the present.

Gaines admitted to defrauding the campaign and contributors of more than $22,000 from at least January 2015-April 2018. She admitted to using money from the the FTPG PayPal account for personal expenses, including purchasing fast food, hair styling, a pool covering for her residence, an Amazon Fire TV stick and payments to Amazon.

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