Press Release
USAO White Collar Crimes Unit Ends 2024 with Notable Achievements
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Ohio
CLEVELAND – The White Collar Crimes Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Northern District of Ohio prosecutes those who violate federal law through fraud or corruption in any of the 40 northern counties in the state of Ohio that the district serves.
White collar crimes are usually non-violent and typically involve schemes such as tax evasion, embezzlement, money laundering, insider trading, multiple variations of fraud, bribery, and investment scams. They also include public corruption and abuse of government benefits meant for unemployment, health, or small businesses. These crimes increasingly target victims on their computers or other electronic devices and are becoming more technologically sophisticated. Victims of such crimes can be individuals, large or small businesses, organizations, and government entities.
“White collar offenders frequently hatch elaborate plans to obtain money by deceitful means. They plot and scheme their way to taking advantage of circumstances and human nature, causing financial harm to people, businesses, and governments, and undermining public trust,” said U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio. “Our office has prioritized investigating and prosecuting those who attempt to deceive others—whether individuals, businesses, or government entities and the public at large—by committing crimes to line their own pockets at the expense of victims. We will continue to seek justice and hold wrongdoers responsible for the financial havoc they wreak.”
Notable white collar crime cases for 2024 include:
U.S. v. Basheer Jones – Jones was a former Cleveland city councilman who pled guilty to bribery and wire fraud. He obtained more than $130,000 from local nonprofits through fraud, and then attempted to obtain additional funds through a bribery scheme involving the use of city funds to pay for a nonprofit to purchase a dilapidated property owned by his romantic partner and co-conspirator. He pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud on Dec. 19, 2024. His sentencing is scheduled for April 1, 2025.
U.S. v. Gregory Gerber – Gerber pled guilty to illegal prescribing of opioids and other substances while ignoring the signs of addiction and abuse in his patients. He was sentenced to 42 months in prison and one year of home confinement. He was also ordered to pay $850,000 in restitution for making fraudulent claims for healthcare reimbursement. A civil complaint was also filed against Gerber, and he agreed to a consent judgment to settle the allegations. The order entered by the court permanently prohibits Gerber from prescribing opioids or other controlled substances, permanently prohibits him from managing, owning, or controlling any entity that dispenses controlled substances, and requires Gerber to pay approximately $4.7 million under the False Claims Act.
U.S. v. Yue Cao – Cao was a bank IT security professional indicted for using his position to find accounts of elderly victims, set up online access to those accounts, and steal funds from them. According to court documents, Cao allegedly transferred approximately $2 million from customers’ real accounts to other accounts he had set up in their names, but that he controlled. Dates for future proceedings are to be determined.
U.S. v. Terrence Pounds – From March 2020 through December 2020, Pounds and his co-defendants devised a scheme to obtain Small Business Administration (SBA)-financed loans from the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) program and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under false pretenses. Under the guise of operating faith-based, nonprofit organizations, the SBA approved many of their loan applications. Pounds often received a share of the loan proceeds as payment for obtaining the loan. He was sentenced to 94 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. He was also ordered to pay $4,239,940.43 in restitution to the SBA.
U.S. v. Clarissa Cheney et al. – Six defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced to a total of 355 months for a COVID-19 fraud conspiracy. From March 2020 to August 2021, they obtained nearly $3,000,000 in federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits using other people’s identities. They submitted fraudulent applications for PUA benefits to California and other states around the country. The defendants, all residents of Northeast Ohio, were sentenced to prison as follows: Clarissa Cheney, 81 months; Kevin Gilmore, 78 months; Tiara Henderson, 70 months; Ladessa Battle, 24 months; Lynard Mitchell, 78 months; and Marcelys Jones, 24 months. Dates for future proceedings for a seventh defendant, Silas Moultrie, are yet to be determined, as Moultrie was a fugitive for approximately one year before being arrested in West Virginia in September 2024.
To report suspected white collar crimes, visit https://tips.fbi.gov/home.
Contact
Jessica Salas Novak
Updated January 2, 2025
Topics
Financial Fraud
Public Corruption
Component