A recent investigation found that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife Sen. Angela Paxton had close ties with a lobbyist involved in a series of fraud cases. Now, it appears that the same lobbyist is beginning to show more interest in the U.S. Sen Ted Cruz.
The Texas Observer reported this week that the Paxtons benefited from a friendly relationship with a lobbyist and former CEO of a company called Multiband Global. James Frinzi, the lobbyist, had appointed Sen. Paxton to serve on the company’s board. During the time she was a member of the board, trustees accused Frinzi of mismanagement, and that he fraudulently transferred assets and funds for his own benefit.
In addition, Frinzi invited the Paxtons on a business trip to the European nation of Kosovo, where he tried to conceal a deal with the nation. Craig Holman, an ethics expert for the government watchdog Public Citizen said the move was to use the Paxtons to legitimize his company to sell it.
“Public officials should not be involved in this type of activity at all,” Holman told the Observer.
While Frinzi is entangled in a series of fraud cases, he said the Paxtons had nothing to do with the operations of the company.
“Ken didn’t do anything to help Multiband Global at all,” he told the Observer. “And Angela has nothing to do with” any of the alleged activities the trustees and the creditors described in lawsuits.
The trustees and FedEx, a major creditor of Multiband Global, alleged that Frinzi, alongside James Goodman, his former boss, carried out various schemes that together diverted more than $80 million in cash from the failed company.
The Observer also reported that last September, just when Paxton was on trial for impeachment, Frinzi was getting closer to Sen. Cruz. In that month, Frinzi played golf with the senator at the former’s Horseshoe Bay country club and also hosted a fundraiser for the Cruz Victory Fund at his house. That same month, Frinzi contributed nearly $50,000 to Cruz’s campaign and other affiliated PACs.
Between 2021 and 2023, Frinzi contributed more than $300,000 to state and federal campaigns, including to Cruz, the Paxtons, and Gov. Greg Abbott.
Frinzi is one of the people with close ties to Ken Paxton that now are gravitating towards Ted Cruz.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Cruz’s chief of staff, Aaron Reitz, testified in the Justice Department’s bribery probe against Paxton.
On August 6, 2024, Reitz appeared before a grand jury in Austin, answering questions about Paxton’s case. Reitz served as Paxton’s former deputy for legal strategy.
According to Bloomberg, Reitz helped prepare an internal office report that examined bribery allegations against Paxton and concluded that the AG had done nothing wrong.
Five Whistleblowers alleged Paxton engaged in bribery with a friend and terminated them because of their first allegations.
Reitz, Paxton and Cruz did not respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment.
The grand jury proceeding comes as Cruz faces a tough re-election race against Democrat Colin Allred, and the decision to subpoena Reitz shows that prosecutors are still interested in Paxton’s case.
