HARRISBURG, Pa. (WTAJ) A Philadelphia man who was facing charges from the Pennsylvania Attorney General (AG) involving an election fraud scheme in 2019 has pleaded guilty.

AG Michelle Henry announced that Rasheen Crews, 46, a Philadelphia political consultant, pleaded guilty to the charges relating to forging signatures on petitions to get his clients on the 2019 democratic primary ballot in Philadelphia.

Crews was said to have been hired by multiple candidates to help get the signatures needed to have their names on the primary ballots, according to the release from the AG. Investigators found that Crews orchestrated a forgery scheme to try to submit thousands of signatures.

Crews recruited individuals to help with the petition work, asking them to write names, addresses, and forged signatures on multiple petitions. He then had the petitions notarized and filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State on behalf of his clients.

Of the petitions that were reviewed, Henry said that over 1,000 signatures were determined to be duplicated. Names and addresses were found repeated on various petition pages, some pages appeared to be photocopied entirely, and some of the listed individuals claimed to have never signed the petitions in question.

Crews pleaded guilty Thursday to Criminal Solicitation to Commit Forgery and Theft By Failure to Make Required Disposition. He will be sentenced on June 29, 2023.

“This guilty plea serves as a reminder that my office will protect every citizen’s right to a free and fair election process,” said AG Henry. “This defendant thought he could undermine that process by soliciting and organizing the wide-scale forgery of signatures to get his clients on the ballot.”

Due to the controversy, some candidates withdrew entirely from the 2019 election.