Aug
Former Jailed Politician Pleads Guilty to Being a Fraudulent Real Estate Broker
An ex-politician from Arizona who went to prison 20 years ago for bribery and money laundering admitted Wednesday that he used his son’s identity 14 years ago to start a new life as a real estate broker.
Donald James Kenney, 74, once the powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in Arizona, pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court to one charge of identity theft for stealing the identity of his son and two of filing false and forged records with a California public agency.
After his release in the late 1990s, Donald James Kenney moved to San Diego, at which time he used the name of his son Donald John Kenney, 44, in order to acquire first a state ID card and then a real estate broker’s license. He both taught and practiced real estate, affiliating himself with Coldwell Banker’s Encinitas office.
When the California Department of Real Estate began an investigation of him, Kenney surrendered the real estate license he had been issued under the name of Donald John Kenney. The DRE referred his case to authorities, who prosecuted, resulting in the guilty please. He was placed on unsupervised probation by Superior Court Judge Laura Halgren but could go to prison for four years and four months if he violates his probation.
Read the original article in U-T San Diego.
