Bombshell deposition surfaces from scandal that got Ken Paxton indicted for fraud

A newly unearthed deposition shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton struggling under oath to explain his finances in the Servergy investment scandal, which led to his 2015 indictment on securities fraud charges.

The New York Times obtained the December 2014 deposition from a person who opposes Paxton’s Senate bid and independently confirmed it was authentic, and the document shows lawyers for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission questioning Paxton for hours about Servergy Inc., a tech startup in McKinney, Texas.

The SEC lawyers wanted to know whether Paxton concealed that he had been paid for recruiting investors, and the Times reported that he said “I don’t remember” or “I don’t recall” more than 200 times.

Paxton testified that he had invested more than $400,000 in various companies but couldn’t find stock certificates potentially worth $200,000.

“I’m so busy,” he said. “I don’t always keep track of this kind of stuff.”

Paxton said the Servergy shares came to him for free, telling the lawyers he had met founder Bill Mapp at a Dairy Queen to give him a $100,000 check, and Mapp turned it down.

“I said, Well, who do I make the check out to?” Paxton testified. “He said, I can’t take your money. God doesn’t want me to take your money.”

When the lawyers asked why a founder looking for investors would give away shares, Paxton admitted, “It was not logical,” and added that “Bill is a spiritual person.”

The lawyers also confronted Paxton with his own tax return, which showed $100,000 for “legal services” to Servergy, and he blamed his wife, Angela.

“I haven’t prepared a tax return in a long time because I don’t have time, so typically — actually my wife actually does them,” he said. Angela Paxton, now a state senator, filed for divorce in 2025 and accused him of adultery.

Months after the deposition, a Texas grand jury indicted Paxton on state securities fraud charges.

Former GOP state Rep. Byron Cook accused Paxton of steering him into Servergy without disclosing that he’d been paid. In 2024, Paxton reached a deal to avoid trial. He paid about $300,000 in restitution and performed community service, and admitted no wrongdoing. A federal judge dismissed the SEC’s civil case in 2017.

Paxton’s campaign downplayed the report.

“This is a 12-year-old deposition about a case that ended without a conviction, handed to the press by a political opponent less than a month before Election Day,” senior adviser Nick Maddux said.

Paxton has been deposed at least three times in the past decade, and none of those depositions are public. Democrat James Talarico’s campaign is fighting to unseal two from a separate case.