University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) graduate Steve Stockman was found guilty of 23 felonies in 2018 after allegedly using $1.25 million in campaign donations for personal and campaign expenses. He was sentenced to serve 10 years in jail, three years’ probation, and ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution.

Earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from UHCL in 1990, Stockman later served two terms as a Republican representative of Texas’s 9th and 36th congregational districts.

Stockman was born on Nov. 14, 1956, in Bloomfield Hills, MI to Evangelical Christian school teachers.

In 1977, when reporting for his unpaid traffic tickets, he was discovered and charged with a felony possession of diazepam in Madison Heights, MI. Stockman pleaded no contest and the felony charge was dropped.

In an 1996 interview with Texas Monthly magazine, Stockman stated he subscribed, “…to the partying syndrome,” as an explanation to his early run-ins with the law.

He attended San Jacinto College from 1985 to 1986 but subsequently dropped out. After becoming a born-again Christian, he graduated from UHCL in 1990, and worked as a computer salesman in Friendswood, TX.

Later in life, Stockman served as the U.S. representative for Texas’s 9th congregational district from 1995 to 1997 and it’s 36th congregational district from 2013 to 2015, both districts being a part of the Greater Houston area.

In 2017 and aged 60, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents arrested Stockman. The detain marked a dramatic fall for the UHCL alumnus, as he faced federal charges related to his campaign finances.

The FBI accused him of violating federal campaign finance laws and diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from multiple sham nonprofit entities for personal and political use. The charitable donations were allegedly funneled to Stockman through campaign donations made by his employees.

In Nov. 7, 2018, the U.S. Office of Public Affairs stated in a press release that Stockman was, “…to serve 120 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,014,718.51 in restitution, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for orchestrating a four-year scheme to defraud charitable donors…”

He was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020. Stockman only served two of his 10 year sentence, but is still required to pay over $1 million in restitution to the victims.

The Signal requested several UHCL faculty members to comment on his time at the university, most stated to not remember him.