AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking a federal judge to dismiss a civil fraud lawsuit over his efforts to recruit investors to a high-tech startup before he was the state’s top prosecutor.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Paxton and former executives of Servergy Inc. in April. Paxton also faces a felony criminal indictment in Texas over allegations that he defrauded wealthy investors in the company in 2011. He has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.
Like the criminal charges, the civil lawsuit accuses Paxton of not telling investors Servergy paid him to raise money.
In a dismissal motion filed Thursday, Paxton’s lawyers say the SEC’s claims against him are a “dramatic overreach” and that Paxton was deceived by the company’s founder.
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