Republican Lawmaker Resigns After Being Convicted In COVID Fraud Scheme

A Republican lawmaker in Missouri has resigned after a jury convicted her of participating in a COVID fraud scheme where she funneled state COVID funds meant for her non-profit group into her for-profit business. The COVID funds have been an epicenter of fraud and waste, and investigators are still rooting out all of those who engaged in fraudulent behavior. But this story also highlights another issue with lawmakers, and Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what that is.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Recently a Republican lawmaker in the state of Missouri was forced to resign after a jury convicted her on 22 different counts, all related to fraud, to a medical clinic that she ran while also being an elected official in the, in the states. So that's, that's a little weird, right? That we allow that to happen. I'll get bored of that in a moment, but let's talk about the crimes that this individual committed. Of course, this was, uh, Missouri state representative Trisha Dergs who got $900,000 from the cares act to distribute tests via a nonprofit that she ran, but she didn't actually use the $900,000 to provide any free test for anyone. What she did instead was she funneled the money to her for-profit medical clinic. So she got almost a million dollars from the cares act. You know, the COVID funds said, I've got this nonprofit over here.

We're gonna give out free tests. We're we're gonna do all the right things because we love people so much. So they said, well, sure, heck yeah, here's your money. And then she said, as suckers, I'm gonna stick it into my for-profit medical clinic that I'm running again while still being a state lawmaker and then boom, massive profit for me. Right? Well, she got busted and now she's going to jail for a very long time because you see, she wasn't only found guilty of defrauding the government for, you know, misusing those COVID funds. She was also found guilty of. Let me read it. Let me read it, cuz this is so ridiculous. The jury convicted Dergs on another seven counts of wire fraud for charging patients, a combined amount of nearly $200,000 for what she fraudulently marketed as a stem cell treatment at her for-profit clinic. The jury additionally found her guilty on two counts of making false statements for telling federal agents the treatment contained stem cells when she knew it did not. In addition to other untrue information, the jury also found RGS guilty of 10 counts of illegal drugs, legally providing drugs over the internet without a valid prescription. Um, Jesus Christ all while being a state representative

Now I know working in a state legislature is not like working in Congress. Okay. You've got much better hours. I mean,

As little as Congress actually works, you know, all the recesses they get, you know, the weeks upon weeks upon weeks when Americans literally get a day off, it's even less for state lawmakers. And of course the pay is not as good as what you get in DC. Never the less, this individual shouldn't have been allowed to run a for-profit business while serving as an elected leader for the state, we have got to do something about this, not just about the, the criminal activity of it. Cuz clearly that's been handled with this individual. You know, Ms. DGES is going away for a very long time, but the problem is the conflicts of interest that arise. You, you should not be allowed to own a business. If you're an elected official, you, you just sh shouldn't maybe city council, something like that. Yes, I understand. That's not a full-time job, but if you're an elected official, that gets a yearly salary and you make laws, you shouldn't be allowed to own a business. I don't care if it's at the state level, the federal level, whatever it is, we gotta do something to clean this up because until we do, we're gonna get more ridiculous stories like this of individuals using federal funds to lie in their own pockets.