Businessman, former St. Charles County GOP leader admits disability fraud

June 23--ST. LOUIS -- Eugene Dokes, a businessman, real estate broker, author and former Republican official in St. Charles County, reaped more than $48,000 for his family by pretending to be disabled, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Dokes, 33, pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of theft of government funds and admitted applying for and winning Social Security disability benefits in 2007, prosecutors said. Dokes claimed to have been disabled for four years, they said.

In 2010, he and his wife, Kenyota Dokes, maintained that false claim, saying that he "did not engage in any social activities" and "had lost any interest in family and friends," prosecutors said.

The indictment says that after Dokes reported self-employment income in 2011, Social Security Administration special agents began investigating Dokes. They discovered that Dokes was a real estate broker, started his own investment company in 2008, started six other companies, published two books and got his bachelor's and master's degrees, prosecutors said. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for the Missouri House, led the St. Charles County Republican Committee and the St. Charles County Republican Caucus and served on the Missouri Advisory Board for United States Commission on Civil Rights, they said.

Dokes was also an unsuccessful candidate in 2008 for the St. Louis County Council.

He now could face a sentence ranging from probation to a year in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Charges against his wife were dismissed June 9 after she entered a diversion program.

Robert Patrick --314-621-5154

@rxpatrick on Twitter

RPatrick@post-dispatch.com

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