A Federal jury convicted US Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska Thursday on one count of scheme to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. On October 19, 2021, a federal jury indicted Fortenberry on charges of withholding information and making false statements. statement to investigators regarding illegal contributions by a foreign national to Fortenberry’s 2016 re-election Campaign. Under US law, foreign nationals may not make contributions to a federal campaign. It is also illegal to disguise the true source of campaign contributions by funneling the money through third-party channels. According to evidence presented at trial, Fortenberry lied and misled authorities during an interview at his Lincoln home in March 2019 and a follow-up meeting four months later in Washington. Both interviews were conducted by federal authorities who were investigating illegal contributions of $30,000 to Fortenberry’s re-election campaign by a foreign billionaire. The foreign billionaire was identified as Gilbert Chagoury. Chagoury was said to have donated the funds through “fake donors” who attended a Fortenberry campaign fundraiser held in Los Angeles in early 2016. On March 23, 2019, Fortenberry falsely told investigators that he was unaware that he had been told that illegal campaign contributions were given to his campaign, that all the people who made contributions in the 2016 fundraiser were publicly disclosed, and that he was not aware of any contribution to your campaign from a foreign national. On July 18, 2019, Fortenberry made additional false statements to federal investigators and prosecutors, including denying that he was aware of any illicit donations made during the 2016 fundraiser, denying that he was directly told that $30,000 was provided in illegal cash in the 2016 fundraiser and stating that he would have been “appalled” to learn about illegal conduit contributions. US District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. has scheduled a sentencing hearing for June 28. Each of the three felony charges carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.