From the TRP:

NASHVILLE, TN – Now that former businessman and key Democratic political donor and fund-raiser Barry Stokes has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $19 million from investors in the 401k programs managed by his company, 1Point Solutions Inc., it is time for Tennessee Democrat Party Chairman Gray Sasser to keep his promise to return the more than $70,000 Stokes donated to the party in recent years.

Stokes, founder and former CEO of 1Point Solutions Inc., gave $52,500 to the party’s state campaign account from 2003-06 plus about $18,000 to the party’s federal campaign account, according to campaign finance records. He defrauded more than 1,000 investors who had their retirement funds in accounts with his company.

Sasser told the Knoxville News Sentinel in September 2007 that the party was open to returning Stokes’ contributions if they are found to have been illegally obtained from others, once the legal proceedings against Stokes were concluded.

“Mr. Stokes has pleaded guilty, and it is clear that the money he donated to the Tennessee Democrat Party and Democrat candidates was stolen money,” said Bill Hobbs, Communications Director for the Tennessee Republican Party. “It’s time for the Democratic Party to give up the funds, and return it to Stokes’ victims.”

Read the Rest of the release below…

The Tennessee Democrat Party and Democrat Gov. Phil Bredesen have a history of accepting and refusing to give up tainted funds.

In 2006, Bredesen and the TDP insisted on keeping tens of thousands of dollars in funds contributed to their campaigns by state troopers under the administration’s scandalous donations-for-promotions scheme, which troopers alleged was coordinated by Bredesen’s right-hand man, then-Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley.

That same year, Bredesen actively campaigned for former Tennessee Highway Patrol Commissioner Fred Phillips, who was running for a seat in the state House of Representatives. Phillips had resigned in disgrace from the THP after the media exposed the administration’s scandalous “pay-to-play” scheme of rewarding troopers with promotions if they or their family donated to Bredesen’s campaign.

In 2006, Bredesen’s re-election campaign touted Stokes as one of Tennessee’s “leading business owners.” And Bredesen’s current Deputy Gov. Stuart Brunson formerly was a lobbyist who lobbied the administration on behalf of 1Point Solutions. Stokes got meetings with various administration officials, including then-Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley, after his donations.

Soon after Stokes’ indictment, the Tennessee Republican Party immediately returned a $1,000 campaign contribution connected to Stokes and 1Point, while the TDP has, so far, held on to tens of thousands of dollars Stokes stole from the retirement funds of future retirees.

In 2007, the TDP refused to return the $58,000 the party received from felon Norman Hsu, even though Democrats across the country, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, returned the funds they had received from the New York con man who, federal authorities say, defrauded his victims of more than $20 million.