MEDINA COUNTY, Texas – The chairman of the Medina County Republican Party has stepped down, amid questions from KSAT Investigates about his past.
Brian Kanke has faced criminal charges, including theft and fraud in Texas and Louisiana, has filed for bankruptcy five times and is accused of failing to repay loans he received for a Houston-area fishing business, public records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.
Kanke, who did not respond to multiple requests from KSAT for an on-camera interview, informed Medina County GOP leadership late last month that he had vacated the position.
The email was sent hours after KSAT attempted to track down Kanke at his listed business addresses in San Antonio, Hondo and rural Medina County.
Troubles in Williamson County
Kanke, 56, was charged with theft multiple times in Williamson County, north of Austin, in the 1990s and 2000, Williamson County court and Texas Department of Public Safety records show.
A 1993 theft-of-check case was dismissed months after it was filed, records show.
Separately, a 1999 felony case of theft of $1,500-$20,000 was reduced to a misdemeanor in 2002. Less than two months later, Kanke pleaded no contest and was given 12 months of community supervision and 50 hours of community service.
He was also arrested in late 2000 on charges of theft of $500-$1,500 and forgery of financial instrument, a fraud allegation used in Texas to charge defendants accused of falsifying financial records.
Prosecutors dismissed the forgery charge against Kanke in June 2002, days after he pleaded no contest in the theft cases, Williamson County court records show.
Kanke was given 12 months deferred adjudication and ordered to serve 96 hours of community service.
It is unclear if Kanke was forced to serve a total of 146 hours of community service or if his hours qualified for both theft pleas.
Kanke’s criminal charges in Williamson County were sandwiched around three bankruptcy filings in 27 months, federal court records show.
He filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in federal court in Austin in August 1998.
Eight days before that bankruptcy case was closed, Kanke again filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in federal court in Austin in February 1999, court records show.
His second bankruptcy case was closed in October 1999.
Chapter 13 bankruptcy permits individuals to create a repayment plan for their debts, and notably, allows them to keep their home out of foreclosure.
Kanke filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court in Austin in November 2000, court records show. That bankruptcy case was closed in February 2001.
In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a trustee sells some of a person’s assets in order to pay back creditors.
Troubles in the Houston area
Kanke was sued by the Klein Independent School District in 2007 and 2008 over unpaid property taxes, Harris County District Court records show.
The 2007 lawsuit was dismissed in March 2009 for want of prosecution, meaning a judge tossed it out due to a lack of movement in the case, records show.
The 2008 suit was nonsuited that same month after the district no longer wished to pursue the case, records show.
Also in March 2009, Kanke was given $35,000 in the form of a promissory note from George Ebelt, who described himself as a family friend.
“He was going out and starting a bait and tackle business, molds and so forth, to make his own line,” Ebelt told KSAT.
The note called for Kanke to pay back Ebelt in monthly installments with 10% interest compounding monthly, records show.
Ebelt loaned Kanke an additional $20,000 in the form of a May 2009 promissory note.
That note had an annual interest rate of 10% and stated that Ebelt would be entitled to a small percentage of gross profits from the fishing business, records show.
To date, Ebelt has been unable to recoup any of the money.
Kanke wrote Ebelt three checks between October 2009 and August 2010 totaling $5,805.73. The first two were returned after being marked “not sufficient funds,” while the third was written from an account that was already closed, records show.
“It’s difficult to see others take your money and not pay it back. People that claim to be your friends,” Ebelt said. “If I loan somebody money I expect it back. I expect them to be a man of their word. So that, to me, is ethics, morals, just this code of honor that you need to adhere to when you work with friends and family.”
Kanke twice filed for bankruptcy in federal court in Houston in 2010, records show.
He filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in April 2010, listing among his creditors auto finance companies, a mortgage company, a bank and the Internal Revenue Service, records show.
The case was closed in late August 2010.
Less than two months later, in October 2010, Kanke filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing among his assets a home in Spring, a trailer home, a boat, several vehicles, a checking account with no balance and a checking account with a negative balance, records show.
That fifth and final bankruptcy case was closed in March 2011, and listed Ebelt among the creditors with unsecured claims against Kanke.
After Ebelt made multiple attempts to collect the money owed to him by Kanke, a bankruptcy attorney in June 2011 sent Ebelt a cease and desist letter.
The letter demanded that Ebelt stop all collection efforts, stating that the debt had been discharged by a court and that the attorney could file for damages against Ebelt if the collection attempts continued.
Troubles in Louisiana
Kanke was arrested in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana in 2013 on several charges related to issuing worthless checks and operating a contracting company without a license, Louisiana District Court records show.
The criminal counts included filing or maintaining false public records, engaging in business without a contractor’s license, misapplication of payment by a contractor and contractor’s fraud, records show.
Several of the charges were dismissed in 2015 and the remaining charges were dismissed in 2016 after Kanke paid restitution, court records show.
“Character now doesn’t matter at all.”
Kanke was appointed as chairman of the Medina County GOP last year after his wife, Julie Clark, stepped down from the position to run for the U.S. House of Representatives - Texas 23rd Congressional District, public records show.
Clark finished third in last month’s Republican primary election with 14% of the vote, meaning she did not move on to next month’s runoff between incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales and Brandon Herrera.
Clark last year led GOP efforts to censure Gonzales over his congressional voting record. Gonzales’ campaign declined to comment for this story.
Clark, who self-funded much of her congressional campaign in the form of in-kind contributions, did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story.
Clark listed at least $575,770.13 in in-kind campaign contributions for herself last year, Federal Election Commission records show.
The contributions included event tickets, radio advertising and campaign manager services, records show.
Kelton Morgan, a longtime San Antonio political consultant who works on behalf of campaigns across the country, told KSAT he was not surprised Kanke held such a high-ranking position within a county’s Republican party.
“It’s a change you’ve seen among Republicans over the last 20 years or so. We have gone from being the character matters party when Bill Clinton was president to character now doesn’t matter at all. You are solely judged on your fealty to a Make America First agenda and Donald Trump at the top of the ticket,” said Morgan, who estimates that about 95% of his work is done on behalf of Republican candidates.
“I did what was asked of me and I got you through the Convention.”
After Kanke did not respond to requests for an interview for this story, KSAT attempted to track him down at the San Antonio business address of his animal medication company, that company’s testing facility in rural Medina County and at his office in downtown Hondo, which also serves as party headquarters for the Medina County GOP.
Hours after KSAT visited the locations, Kanke sent an email to Medina County GOP leadership informing them that he had vacated his position.
“I did what was asked of me and I got you through the Convention,” wrote Kanke in the March 26 email.
Medina County GOP leadership called a meeting last week to accept Kanke’s resignation and voted to temporarily install Robert C. Oberlender as party chairman, Oberlender confirmed to KSAT.
Oberlender said he will hold the position until mid-June, when Chris Schuchart formally takes office.
Schuchart was elected as chair for the Medina County Republican party in March, garnering more than 72% of the vote.
Reached by phone, Kanke told KSAT he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acknowledged making mistakes after leaving military service.
Asked about the unpaid loans for the Houston-area fishing business, Kanke said, “That is not that accurate of a story.”
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.