Maria Butina’s NRA boyfriend arrested for decades-long criminal scheme

Russian Maria Butina has pleaded guilty to conspiring against the United States. Her NRA-affiliated boyfriend, however, is now being indicted for a decades-long fraud.

According to Daily Beast reporter Betsy Woodruff, political operative Paul Erickson was indicted by a grand jury in South Dakota Wednesday on wire fraud and money laundering.

He was arrested Wednesday and pleaded not guilty, according to court documents.

The alleged criminal scheme used a chain of assisted living homes named Compass Care from 1996 to 2018. He also allegedly defrauded investors using a company named Investing with Dignity. It purported to be in the business of developing a wheelchair that allowed people to go to the bathroom without being lifted out of the wheelchair," Woodruff cited.