The Florida legislator who sponsored legislation critics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay" bill was accused of illegally obtaining tens of thousands of dollars in Covid-relief funds, authorities said Wednesday.
Joseph Harding, 35, was indicted on six counts of wire fraud, money laundering, making false statements and other crimes, the U.S. attorney’s office for Northern Florida said in a release.
Harding sought more than $150,000 in loans and received roughly $45,000 in January and February 2021, according to the indictment.
"This bill goes way beyond the text on its page," former Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat who is gay, said in February.
He could face 20 years in prison for the fraud charges, 10 years for money laundering and five years for making false statement, the release says.