By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Rep. Rick Renzi on eight additional charges, including racketeering and making false statements on his 2005 tax return.

The expanded indictment also levies additional conspiracy and insurance fraud charges against Renzi, R-Ariz.

An Arizona grand jury originally handed up a 35-count indictment in February, charging Renzi with conspiracy, fraud, extortion, and money-laundering.

Renzi was accused of conspiring to commit insurance fraud with James W. Sandlin, a former business associate, in a land-swap scheme in his home state and with Andrew Beardall, formerly the general counsel of a Renzi-owned insurance agency.

The new indictment adds a fourth defendant, accountant Dawayne Lequire, who worked at Renzi’s insurance agency.

It charges that the congressman and Lequire conspired between May 2006 and December 2007 to embezzle and misappropriate client premiums from Spirit Mountain Insurance Company to pay Renzi’s personal expenses.

The Justice Department also added a racketeering charge against Renzi, who did not seek re-election and will be out of office in January.

The government alleges that Renzi captained a criminal enterprise for at least six years based on the misappropriation of insurance premiums. The indictment also alleges that Renzi illegally failed to report $700,000 he received from Sandlin on his 2005 tax return.

“This is nothing more than an outrageous effort to change the subject, to pile on unwarranted charges and to try to coerce Congressman Renzi into a guilty plea,” Renzi’s lawyer Kelly Kramer said in a statement.

“It won’t work. We look forward to getting into court to fight these charges and expect the Congressman to be fully vindicated,” Kramer said.

Sandlin also faces an additional charge under the new indictment: making campaign contributions in the name of someone else. Sandlin is accused circumventing campaign contribution limits by convincing an undisclosed individual to donate $4,000 to Renzi’s 2006 re-election bid in his name in exchange for a $4,000 check from Sandlin.

According to the indictment, Sandlin told the donor, “If anyone were to ask you about this, just tell them that I am repaying a loan.”

Renzi is slated to stand trial in Arizona in March.