United States Attorney Phone: (515) 284-6283 |
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| Press Release |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2007 CONTACT:
Stephen P. O'Meara |
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State Senator Matthew McCoy Charged With Attempted Extortion DES MOINES - On March 14, 2007, a federal grand jury in Des Moines returned a one-count Indictment against Iowa State Senator Matthew McCoy, age 40, of Des Moines, accusing him of attempted extortion under color of law in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951, the federal Hobbs Act statute, announced United States Attorney Matthew G. Whitaker. A summons has been issued for his appearance in federal court for arraignment on March 29, 2007. If convicted of the offense, McCoy faces imprisonment of up to twenty years, a $250,000.00 fine, or both such imprisonment and fine. Senator McCoy is accused of attempting to extort money from Reid Schultz, owner of Security Plus, an ADT dealership in Des Moines, and his employee, Tom Vasquez. McCoy is accused of demanding $100.00 for each installation of a system known as Quiet Care. Quiet Care consists of a system of motion sensors placed in a senior’s home to monitor their movement and ensure they are not in distress. The indictment alleges that McCoy attempted to induce payments from Vasquez by the threatened wrongful use of economic harm and under color of official right, in that McCoy threatened to return to the state Medicaid office and ensure that Security Plus would not be a Medicaid vendor if payments were not made to him. The indictment further alleges that between December 29, 2005, and March 24, 2006, McCoy received and accepted approximately $2,000.00 in payments which were represented to be on behalf of Reid Schultz, the owner of Security Plus. These payments were supplied by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of the undercover investigation. This case was investigated by the Des Moines Resident Agency of the Omaha Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. United States Attorney Matthew G. Whitaker stated that, as with any case, an indictment is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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