Appendix B: Recent Prosecutions on Public Corruption Charges
Tyson Baker, age 43, of Etters, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on March 12, 2018 to 42 months’ imprisonment and two years’ supervised release. Baker, a former 17 year veteran police officer with the Fairview Township Police Department, was convicted on September 14, 2017, for theft of seized money that was evidence in two separate drug cases. The FBI in Harrisburg received information that Baker stole money from drug traffickers who were arrested, the subject of traffic stops, or both. On November 21, 2015, Baker orchestrated the theft of $2,000 in drug proceeds seized by the Fairview Township Police Department during a search of a residence that resulted in the seizure of several pounds of marijuana and approximately $15,000. On December 16, 2015, the FBI arranged for a vehicle operated by an undercover FBI agent to be stopped by Fairview Township Police. Baker had the vehicle towed from the scene and, without a warrant and in spite of directions from an FBI agent not to search the vehicle, Baker searched the vehicle and stole $3,000 out of $15,000 concealed in a gym bag in the back of the vehicle. The undercover vehicle was equipped with video recording equipment that recorded Baker going through the vehicle without a warrant.
Barbara Hafer: On October 31, 2017, the former Treasurer of Pennsylvania, Barbara H. Hafer, age 72, of Indiana, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 36 months’ probation for concealing from federal investigators the receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees. Hafer was charged in July 2016 with two counts of making false statements to federal agents. In May 2016, federal agents interviewed Hafer as a part of an ongoing investigation. During the interview, Hafer concealed her financial relationship with a business person, referred to in the indictment as “Person #1,” claiming that this person did not help with her consulting business. When shown a signed contract between Hafer & Associates, LLC, and a company owned by the business person, Hafer denied receiving any payment on the contract. Person #1 had a financial relationship with multiple businesses and had relationships, including fee sharing arrangements, with entities that provided asset management services to the Pennsylvania Treasury while Hafer served as Treasurer.
The Hafer interview took place as part of an ongoing long-term FBI-IRS investigation of alleged pay-to-play activities involving the Pennsylvania State government. The investigation revealed that in February 2005, within weeks of leaving the Office of Treasurer, a firm associated with Person #1 began making payments to Hafer’s consulting firm. For a year, Hafer & Associates received $41,667 a month, totaling the $500,000 committed in the contract. Further, the investigation found that payments began before the contract was signed by the parties.
Although Hafer claimed that this business person did not help her consulting business, the investigation revealed that the money allegedly accounted for approximately 73% of the funds Hafer & Associates earned in 2005. Person #1 helped Hafer’s business by causing the $500,000 agreement to be entered into between Hafer & Associates and a company associated with Person #1 which did not require Hafer & Associates to achieve any particular result; before the Agreement was signed by all parties, Person #1 caused a company associated with Person #1 to pay the first of 12 monthly installments of $41,667 due pursuant to the Agreement; Person #1 caused the payment of approximately $500,000 to be made under the Agreement during the first year Hafer & Associates was in operation; and Person #1 caused an additional $175,000 to be paid to Hafer’s business during calendar years 2006 and 2007.
Hafer served two terms as Pennsylvania’s elected State Treasurer from 1997 to 2005 and two terms as State Auditor General from 1989 to 1997.
Timothy B. Riley: On March 30, 2018, Timothy B. Riley, a Narcotics Agent formerly employed with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Narcotics Investigations and assigned to the Mobile Street Crimes Unit, pleaded guilty to laundering stolen drug proceeds. Riley admitted that he was part of a conspiracy that stole more than $800,000 of cash drug proceeds. Riley was notified by his cousin, Michael Riley, about a large amount of cash from a coast-to-coast marijuana trafficking organization that he was transporting in a rental truck in Pennsylvania. Riley and other members of the Mobile Street Crimes Unit met Michael Riley at a truck stop in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and seized approximately $1,770,650 in cash located in the rental truck. Timothy Riley received three cash payments from the unindicted coconspirators, totaling $48,000. Timothy Riley then deposited and conducted other financial transactions with that money, knowing it was stolen proceeds of drug trafficking. Sentencing is scheduled for May 2, 2019.
In a related case, U.S. v. John Thomas Oiler, Oiler pleaded guilty on August 29, 2018, to conspiring to launder more than $800,000 in stolen drug proceeds from a coast-to-coast marijuana trafficking organization. Oiler rented a storage unit in Baltimore and travelled to Pennsylvania. Oiler then took the vast majority of those proceeds, stored them in the rented unit in Baltimore and laundered those funds by conducting numerous financial transactions, including sending cash Timothy B. Riley. Oiler netted about $400,000 of the proceeds and conducted financial transactions with more than $240,000 of the proceeds. Sentencing is scheduled for May 15, 2019. Finally, charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering have been filed against Michael Riley and he is scheduled for his arraignment on May 2, 2019.
Robert McCord: On August 28, 2018, former Pennsylvania State Treasurer Robert M. McCord was sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment for two counts of attempted extortion. On February 17, 2015, McCord pleaded guilty and admitted that he attempted to extort campaign contributions from a law firm and a property management company while he was running for Governor by threatening economic harm to the potential donors if they failed to make sufficient campaign contributions. In particular, McCord threatened to use his position as State Treasurer to interfere with the business that the law firm and property management firm were conducting with the state if they did not make the contributions. McCord resigned from the Office of State Treasurer on January 30, 2015.
James Short, Jr.: On July 31, 2018, the former Director of Marketing and Merchandising for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PA-LCB) was sentenced to two years' probation and six months' house arrest for a scheme to defraud the state, its citizens and the PA-LCB of their right to his honest services as a public official through bribes, kick-backs and concealing information. James H. Short, Jr., age 53, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, admitted to the charge of Honest Services Mail Fraud at his guilty plea on September 16, 2015. Short was indicted by a grand jury in August 2015. Short served as the Director of Marketing and Merchandising from approximately 2003 to 2012 and supervised the process through which alcoholic beverages are selected and acquired for sale in Pennsylvania’s state-run liquor stores. By pleading guilty Short admitted to approximately 10 years (2002 to 2012) of receiving benefits from a distributor and a manufacturer of alcoholic beverages sold in Pennsylvania’s stores. These benefits included all-expense paid golf trips, cash, gift cards, meals, and other benefits. As Director of Marketing and Merchandising for the PA-LCB, Short supervised the process of recommending to the PA-LCB which new products should be sold and which products should no longer be sold in Pennsylvania’s 500 state-run liquor stores.
Division I Men’s College Basketball Coaches Sentenced For Their Roles In Bribery Scheme: Friday, June 7, 2019: Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that LAMONT EVANS, a former assistant men’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina (“South Carolina”) and Oklahoma State University (“OSU”), and EMANUEL RICHARDSON, a/k/a “Book,” a former assistant men’s basketball coach at the University of Arizona (“Arizona”), were each sentenced to three months in prison, and that ANTHONY BLAND, a/k/a “Tony,” a former assistant men’s basketball coach at the University of Southern California (“USC”), was sentenced to a term of probation, each for accepting cash bribes from athlete advisers in exchange for using their influence over the student-athletes they coached to retain the services of the advisers paying the bribes. The defendants were sentenced this week in Manhattan federal court by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Anthony Bland, Emanuel Richardson, and Lamont Evans, all former men’s basketball coaches at NCAA Division I universities, abused their positions as mentors and coaches for personal gain. They took bribes from unscrupulous agents and financial advisers to steer their players to those agents and advisers. For their crimes, Richardson and Evans will serve time in federal prison, while Bland will serve a sentence of probation. These convictions and sentencings send a strong message that bribery in the world of college basketball is a crime, and that those who participate in such crimes will be held accountable for their corrupt actions.”
According to the allegations contained in the Complaint, Indictment, Superseding Indictment, evidence presented during the trial, and statements made in Manhattan federal court:
Overview of the Scheme
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) have been investigating the criminal influence of money on coaches and student-athletes who participate in intercollegiate basketball governed by the NCAA. The investigation revealed that numerous basketball coaches at NCAA Division I universities, including EVANS, RICHARDSON, and BLAND, received bribes and agreed to receive bribes in exchange for agreeing to pressure and exert influence over student-athletes under their control to retain the services of the bribe payers, including Christian Dawkins, Merl Code, and Munish Sood, once the athletes entered the National Basketball Association (“NBA”).
Beginning in 2016, and continuing into September 2017, when EVANS was arrested, EVANS received approximately $22,000 in cash bribes from current and aspiring financial advisers and/or managers, including Dawkins and Sood, in exchange for EVANS’s agreement to exert his influence over certain student-athletes EVANS coached at South Carolina and OSU to retain the services of the bribe payers once those players entered the NBA. In one meeting recorded during the investigation, EVANS explained how “every guy I recruit and get is my personal kid,” and that “the parents believe in me and what I do . . . that’s why I say, if I need X, so if I do take X for that, it’s going to generate [business] toward you guys,” referring to the bribe payers. EVANS also stated in a call recorded during the investigation how this arrangement was “generating more wealth” for the scheme participants, because they were “able to scratch my back, scratch yours, and help each other with different things and . . . at the same time get compensated and then . . . just go from there.” In return for the cash bribes EVANS received, EVANS, including at in-person meetings, attempted to pressure a player at OSU, and a relative of a different player attending South Carolina, into retaining the financial services of the bribe payers.
Beginning in or around February 2017, and continuing into September 2017, when RICHARDSON was arrested, RICHARDSON received approximately $20,000 in cash bribes from Dawkins and Sood in exchange for RICHARDSON’s agreement to exert his influence over certain student-athletes RICHARDSON coached at Arizona to retain the services of Dawkins and Sood once those players entered the NBA. For example, in discussing his commitment to steering Arizona players to retain the bribe payers upon entering the NBA, RICHARDSON told an undercover FBI agent and others, during a recorded meeting, “I used to let kids talk to three or four guys, but I was like, why would you do that? You know that’s like taking a kid to a BMW dealer, a Benz dealer, and a Porsche dealer. They like them all . . . You have to pick for them.” In return for the cash bribes RICHARDSON received, RICHARDSON facilitated a meeting between the bribe payers, including Dawkins and Sood, and a relative of a player attending Arizona for the purpose of pressuring that player to retain the financial services of the bribe payers.
Beginning in or around July 2017, and continuing into September 2017, when BLAND was arrested, Dawkins paid a cash bribe to BLAND in exchange for BLAND’s agreement to exert his influence over certain student-athletes BLAND coached at USC, and to retain Dawkins’s and Sood’s business management and/or financial advisory services once those players entered the NBA. In particular, as BLAND told Dawkins and Sood during a recorded meeting, in return for their bribe payment, “I definitely can get the players. . . . And I can definitely mold the players and put them in the lap of you guys.” As part of the scheme, BLAND facilitated a meeting between Dawkins and Sood and a relative of a player attending USC, and a meeting between Dawkins and Sood and a relative of a USC recruit, both for the purpose of pressuring those players to retain the financial services of Dawkins and Sood.
In addition to the prison sentences, Judge Ramos ordered LAMONT EVANS, 41, of Deerfield Beach, Florida, to pay forfeiture in the amount of $22,000, EMANUEL RICHARDSON, 46, of Tucson, Arizona, to pay forfeiture in the amount of $20,000, and ANTHONY BLAND, 39, of Gardena, California, to pay forfeiture in the amount of $4,100. Each of the three defendants was sentenced to two years of supervised release, and EVANS and BLAND were also each sentenced to 100 hours of community service.
Christian Dawkins and Merl Code were each found guilty by a unanimous jury on May 8, 2019, of one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Dawkins was also convicted of an additional count of bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for August 15, 2019, before Judge Ramos.
Munish Sood, a financial adviser, previously pled guilty, pursuant to a cooperation agreement with the Government, in connection with this scheme and is awaiting sentence.