Railroad executive William Gardner was charged Monday with giving excessive and illegal contributions to Gov. Scott Walker's campaign last year, by prompting his employees, daughter and ""woman friend"" to make donations and reimbursing them through his company.
After giving a total of $57,800 to Walker's campaign, Gardner will plead guilty to the two felonies and will serve 24 months of probation. His company, Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, will be fined $166,900, while each of the seven other participants will be fined $250.
""At the time the contributions were made, I did not realize I was violating the law,"" Gardner said in a statement. ""I never would have asked my employees, friends or family to break the law. However, this is no justification or excuse at all for what I did.""
The complaint cites a document detailing contribution limits to show Gardner possibly understood the illegality of his actions. Additionally, in an e-mail correspondence, Gardner asked one of the participants to ""not blab this around.""
Gardner's railroad company depends on millions of dollars of grants and loans from the state. He e-mailed Walker to suggest picking a secretary of transportation who understands the importance of railroads to Wisconsin's economy and met with Walker in April 2010 at a Noodles & Company to discuss the topic.
Katie McCallum, a spokesman for the Walker campaign, said neither Walker nor the campaign had any knowledge of the illegal activity and immediately returned the money after it came to their attention.
The investigation began in April 2010 when a ""woman friend"" of Gardner complained to a Government Accountability Board attorney after they broke up, trying to use the complaint as leverage to get her property back. Although she didn't mention Gardner, the investigator managed to identify him and his company.
Gardner asked her to contribute $10,000 to Walker and reimbursed her. She contributed the money but put a stop payment on the check. Gardner and the seven other participants filed a refund with the company for the amount donated, which they received. Two other employees refused to participate while a third didn't pass off the money.
