Disgraced former Baltimore mayor pleads guilty to perjury charge

Former Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh indicted on federal wire fraud, tax evasion charges

The disgraced former mayor of Baltimore has been charged with fraud and tax evasion involving sales of her self-published children's books.

BALTIMORE, Md. - Baltimore’s disgraced former mayor pleaded guilty to a state perjury charge Friday for failing to disclose a business interest relating to her “Healthy Holly” children’s books on her financial disclosure forms when she was a state senator.

Catherine Pugh, a 70-year-old Democrat, already has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for netting hundreds of thousands of dollars in the self-dealing scandal over the books that touted exercise and nutrition.

Pugh is scheduled to report to federal prison later this month. Last year, she pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and tax evasion charges.

She answered “yes” quietly through a mask when asked by her attorneys whether she understood the plea agreement on the perjury charge. It calls for six months served concurrently with her federal sentence.

Pugh served in the Maryland Senate from 2007 to 2016, when she was elected Baltimore’s mayor. She resigned as mayor under pressure last year as authorities investigated bulk sales of her paperbacks, which netted her hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Pugh earned at least $345,000 in income in 2016 through sales of her books but failed to mention her ownership in financial disclosure forms, which are filed with the Maryland State Ethics Commission and signed under the penalties of perjury, according to the state prosecutor’s office.

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In the federal case, Pugh admitted to defrauding purchasers of her books to pay for straw donations to her political campaign for mayor and to fund the purchase and renovation of a house in Baltimore.

She also admitted to selling her books to the University of Maryland Medical System, where she had served as a board member.

The medical system paid Pugh a total of $500,000 for 100,000 copies that were meant to be distributed to schoolchildren, but about 60,000 of those books were sent to a city warehouse and a Pugh office where thousands were removed to give to other customers. Prosecutors say Pugh never delivered the other 40,000 books the health system purchased for city schools.

While serving in the state Senate, Pugh sat on a committee that funded the medical system. She also sat on the hospital network’s board from 2001 until the scandal erupted in March. Pugh returned the last $100,000 payment.