Former Connecticut Governor Rowland to be sentenced on Wednesday

[March 18, 2015]  NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Reuters) - Former Connecticut Governor John Rowland is due be sentenced on Wednesday for violating U.S. campaign laws by taking payments from a business owned by the husband of a candidate he advised.

Rowland, a Republican, was convicted in September of seven criminal counts including falsifying records in a federal investigation, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

He will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who on Monday denied Rowland's request for a new trial. Rowland's attorneys had argued that prosecutors had failed to turn over key evidence involving the 2012 congressional campaign of Lisa Wilson-Foley, who Rowland advised.

Rowland resigned as governor a decade ago after admitting to taking gifts from people who did business with the state.

During Rowland's trial, prosecutors argued that he negotiated a ruse deal to work for a nursing home company owned by Wilson-Foley's husband, which paid him $35,000 intended to compensate him for advising the campaign. Prosecutors contended that the ruse was intended to hide Rowland's involvement in the campaign.

In addition to advising Wilson-Foley, Rowland had sought to advise another Republican congressional candidate, Mark Greenberg, who testified during the trial that he had rejected Rowland's 2010 offer.

Both Wilson-Foley and Greenberg lost their congressional bids.

(Reporting by Richard Weizel; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Bill Trott)

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