Fox was elected Speaker on February 11, 2010 as the first openly gay Rhode Island man to hold that office. Fox resigned from the Speakership on the evening of March 22, 2014 following an FBI raid on his Smith Hill office and his home on Providence's East Side. The FBI found Fox to have stolen $108,000 in campaign contributions and accepted $52,000 in bribes. He completed his sentence at Canaan U.S. Penitentiary in Waymart, Pennsylvania and was released in February, 2018.