The Fort Bend Connection
A rally is planned for next Tuesday calling on embattled Fort Bend County Judge K.P. George to resign. George was indicted last month for peddling fake racism online.
A scheme allegedly hatched by another Democrat, the candidate for Pct 3 Commissioner Taral Patel, already facing multiple felony indictments for impersonating social media profiles.
In the wake of scandal, our investigation centers on a guy who stands to financially benefit if this disgraceful conduct is allowed to succeed in November.
“Hey Judge. Did you know about these racist posts?”
“I think it’s reprehensible what these people have done. If guilty of what they are charged with, KP should resign.”
“Don’t you think you owe taxpayers an apology?” What’s so funny?”
We know why Fort Bend County Judge KP George isn’t laughing anymore. But why is this guy so upset?
“Shapnik. Wayne Dolcefino. How are you man?”
His name is Shapnik Khan. Look what he said on Facebook the day after Fort Bend County’s top public official got accused of peddling fake racism.
“It’s the first time in my life that I feel I have no friends.”
Khan wouldn’t return our calls, so we went and found him.
“This is your community too. Do you think it’s right to peddle fake racism?”
It’s never a good day when the latest snapshot of you is a mugshot.
But we had suspected from the very beginning that Fort Bend County Judge KP George was hiding something.
“Absolutely, I have nothing to say.”
“Don’t you think people have a right to know?”
“I have nothing to say.”
George’s former chief of staff had already been nailed by prosecutors for being a serial liar, waging a criminal campaign to assume fake social media profiles, then peddle fake racism.
Hurling disgusting insults online against his own people, trying to convince the huge South Asian population that Republicans were behind it.
“I call you the peddler of fake hate. How many people are you impersonating? What do you say to the voters?”
Patel was doing it to help his own cynical aspirations to be elected Commissioner of Precinct 3 in Fort Bend County.
“Don’t you think you should drop out of the race?”
Despite being indicted on felonies, Taral Patel still wants you to vote for him.
“What’s wrong with you dude?”
We already knew in August that KP George used these fake racist posts to raise campaign cash, to get taxpayers to pay for security and a fancy new SUV.
But then prosecutors accused the County Judge of being actively involved in the criminal impersonation.
“Let’s talk about this search warrant for KP George’s phone.”
A new search warrant bodes of possible felony charges to come. George is accused of trying to erase his phone right in front of a Texas Ranger.
“Shoo, shoo. You’re treating Wayne Dolcefino like a peasant.”
Fort Bend lawyer Husein Hadi has waged his own social media campaign to expose this scandal. He says Khan is the puppet master in a scheme to further corrupt Fort Bend County government.
“I told you Taral Patel had a puppet master. Guess who’s next. Shapnik Khan is next. It’s in the name.”
Khan runs Fort Bend United, a political action committee that has supported both KP George and his disgraced chief of staff Taral Patel.
He’s been in trouble with the Texas Ethics Commission. And Fort Bend United lists its biggest contributor as controversial developer Andy Schatte and his wife.
Schatte was indicted for bribery and wife fraud in 2008, accused of giving gifts to City of Houston employees for contracts. The charges were eventually dropped.
“Nothing is going to stop us from reaching our goal for Taral Patel.”
Fort Bend United has given the disgraced politician $33,000.
“How can you support Taral Patel?”
“He’s my little brother, man.”
“He’s your little brother. Well even if your family messes up…”
“I’ll tell you this. I know him since high school… This guy hasn’t been proven guilty so what am I going to punish him to ruin our friendship?”
And if voters actually elect the accused peddler of fake racism, Democrats will have total control over Fort Bend County government contracts. And that could be very good for Shapnik Khan.
“I have businesses that I work. You can have multiple businesses.”
Like the Talabi Law Firm.
“What does he do for you guys?”
“He’s an attorney.”
“Shapnik Khan is an attorney?”
Makes you wonder what the Talabi Law Firm tells their clients.
“What do you do for the Talabi Law Firm? The case manager for the law firm says you’re a lawyer.”
“No, I’m not. I’m operations director.”
You’d figure the case manager at the law firm would know that.
“Do you run cases?”
“No, I run the office.”
“You run the office? How does the case manager not know you run the office? I’m not blocking you.”
That Shapnik Khan must be really busy. Because he’s also listed as a Principal at the Civitas Engineering Firm.
And you’ve got to wonder why. He’s not an engineer either.
So, let’s ask the president of Civitas what exactly Khan does.
“What does he do for the firm?”
“So you’re an investigative journalist?
“I am.”
“Okay, I think as the website says he’s on the of the principals of the company.”
“Is this his full-time job?”
“No. This is not his full-time role.”
“Well it’s kind of weird to be a principal of a firm and only be part time, isn’t it?”
“Yeah he’s got his own things.”
“Why do you think Civitas hired you?”
“Because it’s my investment.”
“Your investment?”
“Yeah.”
“They say you are part time.
“I’m not,”
“You’re not part time? Is the President wrong?
“No.”
Civitas has a corruption history worth exploring much deeper.
It just opened last year, the remnants of another engineering firm called KIT Professionals, which apparently racked up more than $109 million in contracts in the City of Houston.
The founder of KIT Professionals was convicted of kickbacks, a scheme to use fake companies to make his bids look lower.
“You don’t think they hired you for your political influence?”
“No.”
Khan isn’t the only interesting hire by the new engineering firm.
Check out the guy who was defending KP George on the Isiah Factor the other night.
“The facts are very troubling, but I want to give Judge George the benefit of the doubt.”
That’s Fort Bend County State Representative Ron Reynolds, who has been re-elected despite losing his law license for barratry.
Right now, there is not a single public official in Texas who owes more fines to the Texas Ethics Commission for campaign misconduct. $77,000.
Reynolds is listed as the Vice President of Civitas. Not bad for another guy who isn’t an engineer.
In recent months, Fort Bend County has started sending money Civitas’s way, ignoring the scandal that brought the founder down.
Two bridge repair engineering contracts worth almost half a million dollars.
We asked to see how Civitas was chosen, who evaluated their proposal. We found out there was no scoring.
It’s not to calculate how Civitas and its political connections could benefit if Taral Patel actually wins the commissioner race.
“Everything should be above board. I’m all about transparency and accountability and I think everybody else who is doing business with the county should do the same.”
Khan apparently thinks all the allegations of public corruption are something to laugh about.
Look at this recent post on Facebook with khan’s wife standing next to a Maserati.
“After being so involved in the corruption, cover up and signing off on it… it has to come to light. What bothers me is that the constituents of Fort Bend and Harris County haven’t paid for this Maserati yet.”
Khan was supposedly being sarcastic, but none of this is funny.
“You ask people to elect you as County Judge and now you laugh at something as serious as this.”
While Taral Patel tries to dodge questions about his conduct, his insults to his own community.
“Don’t you have a message for the South Asian community? All this fake racism? What about KP George?
“Well he’s the County Judge. I don’t speak for him.”
“I didn’t ask you to speak for him. I asked you to speak about him.
“You’re holding my door.”
“I’m not holding your door. Nothing else to say to your community?”
Republicans will rally next week demanding KP George resign.
Patel has taken down his supposed list of big-name political supporters.
But believe it or not, he still has the support of Democratic officials who should have forced him off the ballot weeks ago, including Fort Bend’s former Democratic Party Chairwoman, and Houston Mayor John Whitmire.
Voters in Fort Bend County have a chance to ignore partisan politics when early voting starts and send a message to the peddlers of fake hate.
“Doing what is probably one of the most horrible things that anybody can do in a very diverse community and that is to peddle fake racism.”
Hours after we did our unscheduled interview with Mr. Khan, he went on social media to accuse us of yellow journalism.
“I was harassed by a fake journalist this morning, Wayne Dolcefino, who is paid by someone who wants to take us down as Democrats. He asked me all these fake questions that are irrelevant to this election.”
But during our interview Shapnik was claiming we were big buddies.
“You know me for a long time… We’ve been friends for a long time… Wayne, you know me for a long time.
“Dude, I don’t know you that well. I met you once in my life.”
But we have watched some of Shapnik Khan’s speeches, and he’s right about one thing.
“Money brings power, power brings arrogance and arrogance brings ignorance.”
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