According to a press release by U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin, Representative Micky Hammon (R-Decatur) has pleaded guilty to commit mail fraud.

Mail fraud was allegedly committed because donors would mail contributions to Hammon’s campaign. Hammon would reportedly deposit those checks into his campaign account and then write checks to himself out of the campaign account, and use the funds for personal expenses.

U.S. Attorney Franklin’s news release read, in part:

Self-dealing by elected officials erodes society’s confidence in its governmental institutions…Self-dealing is precisely what occurred here. Those who donated to Representative Hammon’s campaign expected that the campaign would use those resources lawfully and to foster an informative public debate. Instead, Representative Hammon placed those funds into his own personal piggy bank.

Hammon will be sentenced next month and could face up to twenty years behind bars.