Bruce Franks Jr. — former campaign manager to the defeated George Soros-backed Maricopa County Attorney candidate Julie Gunnigle — may be facing felony forgery charges.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office recommended nine felony counts of forgery charges against Franks last month. The Pinal County Attorney’s Office said it would decide whether to charge Franks some time soon.
Franks’ company, Blaque Printing Enterprise, failed to send out 100,000 campaign mailers in 2022 as required by its subcontract with Agave Strategy for the Maricopa County Democratic Party (MCDP), an arrangement which Franks’ fiancée (now wife) and former MCDP executive director, Ne’Lexia Galloway, had coordinated.
Galloway’s previous purchases from her fiance’s company had prompted MCDP to enact policy preventing its board members or employees from awarding business to themselves or family without board approval.
According to previous reports, the party treasurer at the time, Heather Mrowiec, discovered that mailing and printing costs exceeded the agreed-upon payment terms and standard USPS costs, and that the delivered USPS postage receipts were forged.
Galloway also allegedly told Mrowiec that none besides Franks’ company were capable of fulfilling the mailer contract. She asked Agave Strategy to use Franks’ company.
Franks’ company issued a refund to MCDP for the mailers last January.
Weeks after Franks’ company reimbursed MCDP, Galloway fired all but several MCDP staff members.
The sheriff’s office determined that Franks had forged documents alleging proof of the mailers being sent through a sub-vendor. These forged documents were reportedly shown to Agave Strategy CEO Dawn Penich (current communications director of Arizona for Abortion Access and co-founder of Save Our Schools Arizona).
Galloway resigned from her MCDP position last August after media reports emerged revealing the nepotistic arrangement and her fiance’s failure to deliver on his end of the deal.
Galloway and Franks tied the knot in October. Galloway wasn’t recommended by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for any charges.
Allegations and findings of corruption or wrongdoing have plagued Franks throughout his time in Arizona, and even before he moved to this state.
While campaign manager for Gunnigle’s 2022 attorney’s office bid, a nonprofit filed a complaint with the Maricopa County Elections Department questioning the accuracy in reporting Gunnigle’s major campaign expenditures. This included a nonexistent address filed for a political consulting firm owned by the husband of Democratic Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, which received $355,000 from Gunnigle’s campaign. It also included $26,000 allegedly spent on Google advertisements, though no records existed on Google’s end.
Before Franks styled himself a Democratic campaign manager and then campaign materials supplier, he resigned from the Missouri General Assembly in 2019 over claims of family needs and personal mental health issues. That year, an ethics investigation revealed that he spent several thousand in campaign funds on personal expenses: vet bills, a family portrait, the movies, iTunes, and a trip to the casino.
The Missouri Ethics Committee fined Franks $14,000 in late 2019 over the campaign finance violations. Their further investigation found that Franks failed to report multiple bank accounts opening and closing, inaccurately reported many expenditures and contributions, exceeded cash expenditure allowances, and reported expenditures not discoverable within the ethics committee’s accounts.
Franks propelled himself to the Missouri General Assembly through his BLM activism and protesting. He gained national attention for publicizing his 2014 arrest by St. Louis County police, for which he later sued and received a $50,000 settlement in 2019.
The next year, Franks was in Phoenix demanding another, larger settlement for his arrest during another BLM protest-turned-riot. That time, he demanded over $2 million. Franks was arrested for assaulting an officer, rioting, resisting arrest, trespassing, and soliciting others to commit crimes. Phoenix police later dropped the charges.
In 2022, Franks joined a group of 21 BLM activists demanding $3.5 million each ($77 million) from Maricopa County over their arrests in 2020.
