Michael Sohn was such a trusted aide to U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays that he was treated like a son.
But Sohn is facing prison today when he is sentenced in federal court in New Haven for embezzling more than $250,000 from the Shays campaign. Sohn was still running the Shays campaign in 2008 when Shays, a 21-year Congressional veteran, lost to Greenwich Democrat Jim Himes in a hotly contested race.
Sohn did not file any federal income tax returns in 2005, 2006, and 2007 - a time in which he was working for Shays. Public records show that he used $13,000 of campaign money to buy an engagement ring for his wife. The couple went on an elaborate, overseas honeymoon at the time when news of the embezzlement first broke, and the couple is now separated.
The Hartford Courant's veteran court reporter, Edmund Mahony, has the details at http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-political-embezzlement-0921-20100920,0,5372791.story