HARTFORD – Michael Ian Sohn, accused of embezzling money while campaign manager for former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, could be sent to prison for nearly four years under federal guidelines after pleading guilty Thursday.
Sohn, 35, admitted to taking more than $250,000 in campaign contributions that had been made to Shays and converting them to his personal use. He also admitted to evading federal income taxes.
“I made unauthorized withdrawals” with the campaign’s debit card, Sohn admitted Thursday in front of a magistrate in federal court.
Sohn was the most trusted aide in the Shays campaign, and he was always in the thick of the political battle during victories over Westport Democrat Diane Farrell in 2004 and 2006 and during the losing campaign in 2008 to Greenwich Democrat Jim Himes.
With authority to supervise the computer program that tracked campaign expenses, Sohn was deeply involved in the campaign finances – and some money was not discovered missing until years later.
Sohn used the money for car repairs, limousine rides, hotels, furniture, fuel oil, baseball tickets to a game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in New York, and a charitable donation to a Fairfield synagogue where he attended. He failed to report $527,000 in taxable income from 2005 through 2008, which included the campaign contributions that he converted for personal use. He also failed to report wages that he received as the campaign manager, as well as a federal employee. As such, Sohn owes more than $95,000, plus penalties and interest, to the Internal Revenue Service as restitution on the tax evasion charge.
He pleaded guilty to two of 12 counts of a federal grand jury indictment that was handed up in December. In return for his plea, the other 10 counts will be dropped by the government.
The guilty plea Thursday was a long way from the election night victories that Sohn had celebrated with Shays. No one from the Shays campaign or Sohn’s family was present in a small courtroom in the federal courthouse in Hartford.
Many longtime supporters of Shays were absolutely flabbergasted when word first surfaced that Sohn was being investigated by the FBI for embezzlement of campaign funds.
House Republican leader Larry Cafero of Norwalk, who closely followed the Shays elections for years, recalls attending a fundraiser and getting an advance viewing of a Shays commercial from Sohn. Cafero said it was “unbelievable” that Sohn could have been involved in embezzlement because he came across as a hard-working, hard-core, completely loyal Shays supporter.
“He fooled a lot of people,” Cafero said. “If you had 1,000 people in a room … he’d probably be the last guy you would pick. You could have knocked me over with a feather.”
Sohn will be sentenced May 27 in Hartford in front of Judge Robert N. Chatigny, who is facing confirmation for a prestigious seat on the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City. Sohn declined to comment to Capitol Watch upon leaving the courtroom with his defense attorney, Harold James Pickerstein.
(In photo: Michael Sohn, left, leaves federal court in Hartford Thursday afternoon with his attorney, Harold James Pickerstein, right. Rick Hartford/Hartford Courant)