Rebecca Vigil-Giron
The trial of former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and three others accused of bilking taxpayers out of millions of dollars has been delayed again.
The defendants were originally scheduled to go on trial in July, but the trial was rescheduled for Jan. 3 of next year. Now the trial date has been delayed again. No new date has been set by the court, Phil Sisernos, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, confirmed.
Vigil-Giron, lobbyists Joseph Kupfer and Elizabeth Kupfer, and media consultant Armando Gutierrez, who headed the company Vigil-Giron hired to help the state implement a federal voter education program, each face 50 counts including money laundering, fraud, soliciting or receiving kickbacks and tax evasion. They allegedly took the money between 2004 and 2006 using the secretary of state’s contract with Gutierrez by falsifying invoices.
The charges include:
- Four counts of fraud over $20,000 or, in the alternative, embezzlement over $20,000.
- 11 counts of money laundering over $100,000.
- Five counts of money laundering over $20,000.
- Eight counts of tax fraud.
- 13 counts of tax evasion.
- Four counts of making or permitting false public vouchers.
- One count of soliciting or receiving an illegal kickback.
- One count of offering or paying an illegal kickback.
- Two counts of tampering with evidence.
- One count of conspiracy.
You can read the full indictment against Vigil-Giron by clicking here.
All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.