Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.
Denis Calabrese helped lead the charge for criminal-justice reform. Now he’s awaiting sentencing for a felony.
Calabrese, a prominent Republican consultant based in Houston, pleaded guilty late last month to tax evasion. He admitted to filing a false tax return in 2011 that “substantially” understated his income, and to setting up a Cayman Islands company to shield revenue from his consulting business from U.S. tax collectors.
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A federal court in Texas will sentence Calabrese this month. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Calabrese is a longtime Republican operative who worked as a chief of staff for former House Republican Leader Dick Armey before opening his own political consulting practice. In 2010, Calabrese took a job as the president of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, a charitable group run by the billionaire former hedge-fund manager and his wife, where Calabrese worked for seven years.
According to the foundation’s annual tax filings, it paid Calabrese about $4.5 million in salary and benefits through 2017. David Hebert, a spokesperson for the foundation, which now goes by Arnold Ventures, noted that Calabrese left the organization two years ago.
The organization “answered all questions posed by law enforcement about Mr. Calabrese,” Hebert added. It “firmly believes in the American justice system and its capacity to conduct investigations. We support the result reached in this matter and will let the charge speak for itself.”
At the helm of the foundation, Calabrese helped lay the groundwork for federal criminal-justice reform legislation. It’s also been heavily involved in health-care and education policy.
And while Calabrese’s GOP credentials are unimpeachable, John and Laura Arnold almost single-handedly financed a super PAC during the 2018 election cycle that helped fend off a Republican challenge to embattled Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat.
Menendez beat his federal criminal rap. It appears Calabrese will not be so lucky.
