A criminal complaint filed with the U.S. DOJ provided evidence of alleged bribes being paid to Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney Shannon Taylor’s 2015 campaign donations. The bribes were allegedly paid by a convicted felony drug dealer and his attorney, through campaign contributions in 2014-2015, to gain the support of Shannon Taylor in a motion to expunge a felony cocaine conviction.

A Henrico County prosecutor has filed the anonymous complaint under the Whistleblower Protection Act and has provided our investigators a copy of the criminal complaint, the whistleblower fears retaliation by HCCA Shannon Taylor, thus seeking protection for providing evidence of the alleged bribes being paid to Shannon Taylor’s 2015 campaign.

A WTVR news article from January 07, 2012, depicted the firing of seven Henrico County prosecutors immediately after Shannon Taylor took office. The prosecutors felt they were victims of politics, even though they held non -political positions and had many years of experience. https://wtvr.com/2012/01/07/new-commonwealths-attorney-takes-office-fires-seven-lawyers/

The whistleblower stated to our investigators that “they feared of reprisals and that Richmond is a small city that could easily blacklist them from continuing a career in the legal profession. Our office operates under unethical political favours given to large law firms and well known attorneys, I felt that with the upcoming elections in November, the illegal activity in our office needed to be disclosed, this is just one of several examples and their needs to be a extensive investigation by the DOJ.”

The whistleblower said “the FBI has been receiving complaints of illegal bribes in the form of political favours but they have been swept under the rug, Shannon Taylor and the Richmond FBI are very closely connected and there are no limits as to the cover ups over the past seven years.”

The whistleblower stated in the criminal complaint that amounts of $5500 were paid to Shannon Taylor’s campaign in order to have her support a motion to expunge a convicted felony drug dealer record. The bribes were allegedly paid through the drug dealer and his attorney, who are also related to each other. The names of the drug dealer and his attorney are being withheld at the moment and will be disclosed shortly after the U.S. DOJ confirms the complaint filed.

The drug dealer had pleaded guilty and was convicted of felony conspiracy to distribute cocaine, he had admitted to distributing several kilos of cocaine in the Richmond area for over seven years. The convicted drug dealer was part of an organization that distributed millions of dollars of cocaine in the Richmond area, two other co-conspirators also had pleaded guilty to felony distribution of cocaine but it is yet unknown if their records were also expunged by Shannon Taylor’s support.

This recent criminal complaint filed by the whistleblower brings a wave of controversy in the Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney’s office specifically aimed at alleged corruption activity under the command of Shannon Taylor. Shannon Taylor, representing the Democratic party, is seeking her 3rd term as the Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney for 2020. Shannon Taylor is a member of the Virginia State Bar’s 2018-2019 Standing Committee on Legal Ethics.