Former political campaign manager Andre Curtis walked free from court yesterday after a jury cleared him of stealing nearly $130,000 from the public purse.He was also found not guilty of allegations that he lied about how he spent the money from the Faith-Based Tourism (FBT) project.Mr Curtis has several previous convictions for offences of dishonesty and is currently serving a jail sentence for running an unlicensed investment business.He touched his hand to his heart and said “thank-you” to the jurors who cleared him of the latest charges yesterday.He told the media he felt “good, thanks” as he was loaded into a prison van to return to Westgate.Defence lawyer Mark Pettingill slammed Government during the trial for handing Mr Curtis the cash without any solid contract obligating him to spend it purely on FBT.Mr Pettingill said after the verdicts that Mr Curtis, a 49-year-old father-of-two, had been “vindicated”.He explained: “I think it was the right decision with regard to what the law was and the obligations as it relates to the law.“I have said all along that it should never have been a position where he was criminalised for failure to perform under the contract.”Mr Curtis was then-Premier and Minister of Tourism Ewart Brown’s campaign manager and also chairman of the Tourism Board when he was awarded the FBT contract in April 2007.The $400,000 deal required him to organise ten religious events and attract at least 2,200 visitors to Bermuda between April 2007 and April 2008.He resigned from the Tourism Board to head the project, but Government officials told the trial they had major problems getting information from him about how he was running the initiative.The Department of Tourism refused to pay the final instalment of the contract when he could not prove he had hit his visitor targets.During his trial, prosecution witnesses gave figures for events that were at odds with those Mr Curtis supplied to Government.Mr Curtis went on trial at Supreme Court on September 26 accused of theft and false accounting.During the case, the jury heard from forensic accountant Todd Boyd that he appeared to have spent just $215,568 of the $345,250 he received for FBT on that purpose.Prosecutors claimed that Mr Curtis stole the rest of the money and spent it on items that had nothing to do with Faith-Based Tourism, including his own personal expenses and debts.On one occasion he donated $25,000 to his church, after being “moved by God” during a Bible study session. Other sums went to repay debts he owed his wife, mother, and daughter.Prosecutor Kirsty-Ann Kiellor alleged that Mr Curtis stole from Government’s “cookie jar” by misappropriating public cash.Mr Pettingill insisted Mr Curtis was an innocent man who was made a scapegoat due to the public controversy over Faith-Based Tourism, which sparked media reports and questions in Parliament.He said Government simply “handed him the cookie jar”.Mr Curtis was also charged with false accounting after filing a budget report stating that he spent $536,845 on FBT.Mr Boyd said he could not find evidence that Mr Curtis spent anywhere near that amount.Mr Pettingill argued that Mr Curtis compiled the document before two FBT events had even been held, and it could not be relied upon as a final statement of accounts.Mr Curtis was cleared part-way through the trial of a third charge he faced; stealing $271,000 from a client named Andrew Smith in respect of a building contract.Prior to the latest case, he had been convicted of running illegal investment schemes in Bermuda and the US.He was fined $335,000 and ordered to pay back huge sums of cash in late 2010 for his role in a worldwide Ponzi scheme.The Montana Commissioner of Securities and Finance ruled Mr Curtis profited after running the scheme in which 22 investors were conned out of a total of $4 million alongside convicted money launderer Daniel Two Feathers in 2008.In addition to the fine, Mr Curtis was ordered to repay victims he duped by falsely promising massive returns. In December 2010, Mr Curtis was jailed for 15 months for operating an unlicensed investment business, Harvest Investment Holdings.He’d falsely claimed the company was registered with the Bermuda Monetary Authority, as it should have been in law.He is still serving the jail sentence that was meted out for that matter, although his background was never revealed to the jury considering the Faith-Based Tourism allegations.The Royal Gazette understands he is due to be released next week.