Politician Is Convicted for Misuse of Charitable Funds

Thomas E. Wright, a Wilmington, N.C., member of that state’s House of Representatives, was convicted yesterday on three felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, thus ending a yearlong investigation into whether he took out a fraudulent bank loan and deposited charitable contributions into his own bank account, reports The News & Observer.

Mr. Wright received three consecutive sentences, which will send him to prison for at least five years and 10 months.

Mr. Wright, who is African-American, told jurors that he was targeted by political enemies who didn’t like it when he pushed to commemorate a race riot that took place in Wilmington in 1898.

Jurors convicted Mr. Wright of fraudulently taking out a $150,000 loan and pocketing $7,400 of charitable contributions meant for a Wilmington health-care foundation he led. Prosecutors said Mr. Wright urged a state health official to write a letter in 2002 about a nonexistent state grant that, prosecutors said, Mr. Wright then used to get the $150,000 loan.

Mr. Wright’s attorney, Doug Harris, said he plans to appeal the conviction.