Paul Erickson

Paul Erickson
Born:	1962 Vermillion, South Dakota
Charges:	Wire fraud, Money laundering
Sentence:	7 years federal prison
Facility:
Status:	Pardoned (January 2021)

Paul Erickson (born 1962) is an American conservative political operative, lawyer, and businessman. He spent decades inside Republican politics. He worked on presidential campaigns, ran a College Republicans network, and built ties to the National Rifle Association. In November 2019 he pleaded guilty in the District of South Dakota to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. The charges grew out of investment schemes he ran over roughly two decades. On July 6, 2020, a federal judge sentenced him to seven years in prison and ordered him to pay about $3 million in restitution to more than fifty victims.

Erickson drew wider attention through his relationship with Maria Butina. Butina was a Russian national who pleaded guilty in December 2018 to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian Federation. The two had dated for years. Erickson was never charged with any crime connected to Butina or to Russia. His fraud case was separate. It predated her arrest and rested on a pattern of false promises to investors that stretched back to the late 1990s.

On January 19, 2021, his last full day in office, President Donald Trump granted Erickson a full pardon. The pardon came after the sentencing, not before it. It erased the remaining prison term and wiped out the restitution Erickson still owed his victims. The White House statement described the case as a product of the "Russian collusion hoax" and called the underlying conduct a "minor financial crime." One victim told a reporter the pardon felt like a "slap in the face."

Background

Early life and education

Erickson was born in 1962 in Vermillion, South Dakota. He was adopted and raised there. He attended the University of South Dakota, where he served as Student Association vice president in 1980. He then transferred to Yale University and graduated in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in economics and political science. He earned a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1988.

Political career

Erickson started in politics as an undergraduate. In 1980 he coordinated a youth campaign for Representative James Abdnor during Abdnor's Senate run in South Dakota. Abdnor won the seat, unseating George McGovern. South Dakota Republican lawmaker Lee Schoenbeck, who knew Erickson from their College Republicans days, later said that campaign launched Erickson's career.

Between his time at the University of South Dakota and Yale, Erickson served a year as national treasurer of the College Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C. The committee staff in that era included Grover Norquist as executive director, Ralph Reed, and Jack Abramoff as national chairman. Erickson later said the network shaped his whole career. "College Republicans meant that we knew everybody," he said. "We were the foot soldiers for every conservative politician, movement and campaign in the country."

In 1984 Erickson helped manage youth outreach for Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign. That same year he wrote and performed "Fritzbusters," a comedy bit that mocked Democratic nominee Walter Mondale. The routine borrowed from the film Ghostbusters. He and other College Republicans performed it at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas and later as a warm-up act at Reagan rallies.

His highest-profile campaign role came in 1992. Erickson served as national political director, and de facto campaign manager, for Pat Buchanan's primary challenge against President George H. W. Bush. He ran the New Hampshire effort, where Buchanan took 37 percent of the vote against a sitting president of his own party. A Buchanan biographer later said Erickson was "the best there was at the price Pat could afford."

In 1996 Erickson co-chaired Bob Dole's presidential campaign in South Dakota. He kept his ties to Republican circles and to the NRA through the 1990s and 2000s. Those NRA connections later mattered when he met Maria Butina.

Business and other ventures

Erickson took on business and entertainment work alongside politics. He served as an executive producer on Red Scorpion (1988), an anti-communist action film starring Dolph Lundgren and produced by Jack Abramoff. From 1993 to 1994 he acted as media adviser and agent for John Wayne Bobbitt, organizing a publicity tour after Bobbitt's tabloid notoriety. In 1994 he accepted a contract from Abramoff to lobby on behalf of Congolese ruler Mobutu Sese Seko.

Fraud Scheme

Federal prosecutors said Erickson ran a series of fraudulent investment schemes from the late 1990s through 2018. The conduct centered on entities he owned and controlled. Compass Care, Inc., a senior-care venture he founded in 1997, promised investors large returns and produced none. Civil judgments against Erickson and Compass Care date back to the early 2000s, including a $115,417 judgment in 2003 and a $190,000 judgment in 2008. He also operated a venture called Investing with Dignity, LLC.

The scheme that anchored the federal case involved an oil development project in North Dakota. Erickson told investors the project would deliver steep returns. Prosecutors said the money did not go to oil development. It went to personal spending and, in part, to support Butina. Investors who put money in did not get it back.

Reporting on the case described a long pattern. Erickson pulled in money from people who trusted him. The pool of victims included Yale classmates, business contacts, and people he met through church networks. He used personal, professional, and religious relationships to raise funds. News accounts and court filings put the total losses in the millions, with figures cited in different filings ranging from about $1.2 million tied to the oil project to broader estimates of the full scheme.

Charges and Plea

A federal grand jury in South Dakota indicted Erickson on February 6, 2019. The indictment carried eleven counts of wire fraud and money laundering. It alleged that he had devised a scheme to obtain money from victims through false promises.

The timing drew attention. The indictment came weeks after Butina pleaded guilty in her own case. Prosecutors and the Justice Department said the fraud charges were not connected to Butina or to the broader investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The cases ran on separate tracks.

In November 2019 Erickson pleaded guilty. He admitted to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering under a written plea agreement filed in federal court in Sioux Falls. The plea resolved the indictment.

Pardon and Sentencing

The order of events matters here, because public summaries sometimes get it backward.

Erickson was sentenced first. On July 6, 2020, U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier sentenced him to seven years in federal prison. The court also ordered him to pay about $3 million in restitution to more than fifty victims. He began serving the term in 2020.

The pardon came more than six months later. On January 19, 2021, his last full day in office, Trump granted Erickson a full pardon. The clemency came after sentencing, while Erickson was already in prison. It ended the remaining prison term and canceled the restitution he still owed.

The White House framed the pardon around the Russia investigation. Its statement said Erickson's "conviction was based off the Russian collusion hoax" and described the underlying conduct as a "minor financial crime." The statement noted that the seven-year sentence exceeded the Justice Department's recommendation. It also said the pardon was supported by former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

The "minor" characterization drew criticism. Prosecutors had documented millions in losses across dozens of victims, with about $3 million in court-ordered restitution. One victim told South Dakota Public Broadcasting that the pardon felt like a "slap in the face." The pardon left those victims without the restitution the court had ordered.

Relationship with Maria Butina

Erickson met Maria Butina around 2013 through NRA circles. Butina was a Russian national. She worked as an assistant to Aleksandr Torshin, a Russian central bank official, and founded a Russian gun-rights group. Erickson helped her with that group, supported her graduate studies at American University, and introduced her to Republican figures. The two dated for several years and lived together in Washington, D.C.

In July 2018 the FBI arrested Butina. She was charged with conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian Federation. In December 2018 she pleaded guilty to that conspiracy. She served eighteen months and was deported to Russia in 2019. Erickson appeared in her court documents as an unnamed American operative. He was never charged in connection with the Butina case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What did Paul Erickson do?

Erickson pleaded guilty in November 2019 to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in the District of South Dakota. The charges came from investment schemes he ran over about two decades, including an oil development project in North Dakota in which investors lost their money. He was also the longtime boyfriend of Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered Russian agent in a separate case.

Q: Was Paul Erickson sentenced before or after his pardon?

He was sentenced first. A federal judge sentenced Erickson on July 6, 2020, to seven years in prison and about $3 million in restitution. President Trump pardoned him more than six months later, on January 19, 2021. By the time of the pardon, Erickson was already serving his sentence. The pardon ended the remaining prison term and canceled the restitution.

Q: What was Paul Erickson's sentence?

On July 6, 2020, U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier sentenced Erickson to seven years in federal prison. The court also ordered about $3 million in restitution to more than fifty victims. The January 2021 pardon erased both.

Q: Why was Paul Erickson pardoned?

Trump granted the full pardon on January 19, 2021. The White House statement tied the case to the "Russian collusion hoax" and called the conduct a "minor financial crime." It said the pardon was supported by Kellyanne Conway. Prosecutors had documented millions in losses across dozens of victims, and one victim called the pardon a "slap in the face."

Q: Who is Maria Butina?

Maria Butina is a Russian national who pleaded guilty in December 2018 to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian Federation. She was Erickson's girlfriend for years. She served eighteen months and was deported to Russia in 2019, where she later joined the Russian parliament. Erickson was never charged in connection with her case.

Q: What was Paul Erickson's political career?

Erickson was a longtime Republican operative. He coordinated a youth campaign for James Abdnor in 1980, served as national treasurer of the College Republicans alongside Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff, worked on Reagan's 1984 re-election, ran Pat Buchanan's 1992 primary campaign as national political director, and co-chaired Bob Dole's 1996 campaign in South Dakota.

See also

• Wire Fraud
• Money Laundering
• Presidential Clemency and Pardons