March 11, 2009 07:20 PM UTC

Scott Shires...Again?

• 7 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post reports:

Republican operative Scott Shires is accused of helping the head of an illegal-gambling ring hide the nature of his business, according to a state indictment.

Shires is alleged to have advised Jeffrey Castardi on how to disguise money laundering at Mario N Wongs, a restaurant Castardi owned.

Castardi and six others were indicted last month on allegations they ran an illegal-gambling operation and other rackets. Shires is not charged in the case.

Shires denied involvement in the scheme. He said he was not aware of what Castardi was doing during the period that his company, Shires Financial Group, handled bookkeeping matters for him…

Our readers will recall that Shires had a major role in shady financing in 2006 and figured prominently in a damaging story last year, related to then-GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer’s service on the board of what was later determined to be a fraudulent enterprise bilking the federal government out of millions of grant dollars.

Shires says he didn’t know anything about that either. It’s all in the, ah, plea bargain if you want to read it. Back to the present crime, the Post continues:

Shires was among a list of people who “feloniously and knowingly conducted or participated, directly or indirectly, in the enterprise,” the indictment said. [Pols emphasis]

Rob Shapiro, Colorado’s first assistant attorney general, who is handling the case, didn’t return calls for comment.

Shires has brushed up against the law before. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing false tax returns in connection with a case against his one-time employer, Octane International Limited.

He was sentenced in June to a year’s probation and a $3,450 fine in the case.

Shires is well-connected in Colorado GOP circles and has run tax-exempt 527 political committees formed to influence elections in the state, including the Colorado League of Taxpayers and the Coalition for Energy.

At some point, Republican moneymen will probably figure out that this guy isn’t exactly, you know, the guy you want handling your books. Until then, Democrats will no doubt be glad to let him remain tied firmly around the GOP’s neck–like an ankle bracelet that baggy pants won’t cover up.

Rep. Dave “The Resume” Balmer, on the other hand, finds this whole conversation entirely too judgmental. “Who among us is without sin?” we can picture him asking, unaware of the irony.