CONSULTING EXECUTIVE PLEADS GUILTY TO STEALING FROM CLIENT: Graham Hauck, the president and chief executive of D.C. consulting and association management firm Hauck & Associates, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a nonprofit trade group that was a longtime client of the firm, the Justice Department announced. — According to court documents filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, over the course of roughly eight months in 2019, Hauck cashed fraudulent checks and initiated fraudulent transfers from two bank accounts associated with an unnamed trade association that had been a client of the firm’s for nearly 20 years. — The transfers, some of which came from a bank account belonging to the organization that Hauck & Associates was not authorized to access, totaled more than $336,000 — more than double the annual management fee the association agreed to pay the firm for its work. — When one of Hauck’s employees, who was serving as the executive director of the trade group, brought the unusual activity to Hauck’s attention, Hauck lied to the employee about his knowledge of the issue, the filing shows. He also fabricated balance sheets to conceal the missing money, according to the filing, which were presented monthly to the trade group’s board of directors. — Hauck pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years. The plea deal indicates prosecutors will ask for a sentence of 27 to 33 months behind bars, however, in addition to making full restitution and paying a fine of up to $100,000. His sentencing is set for Sept. 14. CROWLEY, DENTONS PART WAYS WITH MUSICFIRST: The musicFIRST coalition is parting ways with chair Joe Crowley and his firm Dentons after the former House Democratic Caucus chair registered as a lobbyist for TikTok, two people familiar with the matter told Daniel. — The coalition viewed Dentons’ work for TikTok as a conflict of interest, given that its members have tangled with the app and other tech companies over fair compensation for the use of music on their platforms, according to the same two people. — Crowley, a longtime singer and guitarist who became known for serenading his House colleagues, became chair of the coalition of artists, labels and other recording industry interests almost two years ago and was part of a team at Dentons that billed the group $90,000 last quarter. Earlier this year, Crowley registered on behalf of TikTok with two other Dentons colleagues, reporting $70,000 in Q1 billings. — In a statement, the coalition thanked Crowley for “his lifetime of leadership and fierce advocacy on behalf of artists” and said he had led them “to unprecedented heights and significant legislative progress.” Crowley told Playbook in a text that the split “wasn’t a bad break-up” and noted that he’d “delivered some pretty big wins for the group.” — He added, “If you know me, and know my passion for music and musicians’ rights, you’ll know this isn’t the end of my work on these issues.” — The coalition has tapped former Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and former Bush DOJ official Will Moschella of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as co-chairs to replace Crowley. TICKETING COALITION HIRES AKIN: Brownstein’s chief rival for the title of K Street’s top lobbying earner has signed the newest coalition in town pushing for reforms to ticket marketplaces. Fix the Tix, which was launched last week by a collection of trade groups and companies representing various corners of the live events industry, has retained Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to press their case on the Hill, according to a disclosure filed today. — The hire isn’t a huge surprise — Akin Gump also lobbies for the National Independent Venue Association, one of the trade groups spearheading the coalition. Akin Gump’s Ed Pagano, a former Obama White House and Senate Judiciary aide, and Casey Higgins, a former staffer to ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan, will work on the account for Fix the Tix. FLYING IN: More than 200 hoteliers will hit the Hill next week as part of the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s annual fly-in, which will focus on labor shortages and workforce policies. The trade group has more than 100 meetings scheduled with House and Senate offices, including leadership in both chambers. — Members plan to call for expanding the H-2B visa program in addition to supporting a measure that would allow asylum seekers to more quickly get necessary authorization to work and a bill that would codify the Trump administration’s joint employer rule. — The Free Speech Coalition, which represents the adult entertainment industry, was on the Hill for its first-ever fly-in today. The coalition was slated to meet with more than a dozen offices on both the House and Senate side, but FS Vector’s Pierre Whatley, one of the group’s lobbyists helping organize the fly-in, declined to identify any specific offices “due to the sensitivities.” The coalition, which like the rest of the porn industry has ramped up its advocacy efforts amid pushes over the past few years for more online regulation, is pushing back against what it says are discriminatory banking practices against adult entertainers. — The Chamber of Mothers, meanwhile, was on the Hill on Tuesday to press lawmakers on passing legislation on paid leave, access to child care and maternal health issues. The coalition met with 17 House and Senate offices on both sides of the aisle. SILICON VALLEY SCORES WINS IN STATE SAFETY LAWS: POLITICO’s Rebecca Kern reports that as “the battle over online safety and privacy shifts from Washington to state houses” with a wave of proposals focused in particular on digital protection efforts for kids, “a POLITICO review found multiple loopholes carved out of the laws in response to tech industry lobbying in state capitals.” — Bills passed in Arkansas and Utah this year, for example, included exemptions for Google’s YouTube and LinkedIn, respectively, while “California’s Democrat-controlled legislature, which enacted the country’s first kids’ online safety law, recently removed a key provision in a new kids online safety bill that would have let Californians sue tech companies over ‘addictive design features,’ following lobbying from tech companies.” — “The fight over digital protections is taking place far from Capitol Hill and K Street, the traditional battlegrounds for high-stakes regulatory fights, in part because Congress has failed to advance any of its own laws to protect kids online and states are filling the gap. And the tech industry plans to keep up the pressure, with dozens more bills expected to see action across the country in the coming years.” — “Leading the lobbying campaigns are top trade associations for the technology industry, NetChoice, which represents Meta, Google, Amazon, TikTok and Twitter, and TechNet, which represents Meta, Google, Amazon and Snapchat.” Both groups have appealed to Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, both Republicans, to veto their states’ bills, “even as the groups worked behind the scenes to win exemptions and protections for some of the biggest social media companies.”
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