Basheer Jones, the disgraced former Cleveland city councilman who ran an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2021, pleaded guilty to a range of fraud and corruption-related charges in U.S. District court on Thursday, records show.
Jones had been charged in November by the Feds for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, stemming from actions he and his former girlfriend, Sinera McCoy, carried out during Jones' tenure on City Council.
Those charges, according to a complaint filed November 25, allege that Jones fleeced several local nonprofits out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Those, like Famicos and Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, that had expected Jones to follow through on promises -- rehabbing old corner stores or handing out free backpacks to kids -- that instead had Jones and his girlfriend padding their pockets without delivering results. Jones, the Feds allege, schemed to get McCoy contracts with nonprofits without disclosing their relationship and entered into secret real estate deals from which the two personally profited.
McCoy herself has not been charged.
Jones is the sixth councilperson in Cleveland to be arraigned and charged for crimes during their time on Council, the Plain Dealer reported.
The guilty plea deal comes with a recommended prison sentence of between two years and nine months to three years and five months, according to reports.
In one incident, in May 2020, when Jones was in his third year on Council, he encouraged Famicos to send a $50,000 check to McCoy's account, under the impression Jones would host a charity event in his Ward 7 in the near future. Gift cards and school supplies would be handed out.
Instead, that money, the complaint says, was used elsewhere: $10,000 was withdrawn to Jones' own pockets; A combined $10,500 were given to two of Jones' close associates.
Jones, the Plain Dealer reported, will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Philip Calabrese on April 1.
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