Former Executives Charged with Participating in Bribery Scheme

William J. Edwards, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, C. Frank Figliuzzi, Special Agent in Charge of the Cleveland Division of the FBI, and Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, today announced that a six-count Information was filed charging John J. Carroll, former Vice President of Facilities and Institutional Services for MetroHealth System (“Metro”) and Nilesh R. Patel, former Vice President of East West Construction Company (“East West”) in connection with the Cuyahoga County public corruption investigation. Carroll, age 61, resides in Aurora, Ohio. Patel, age 42, resides in Independence, Ohio.

The Information charges that Carroll and Patel, along with a second unnamed Metro official, PE6, participated in a bribery conspiracy spanning nine years. The Information charges that Carroll and PE6 solicited and accepted from Patel travel, gift cards, home improvements and home furnishings valued at approximately $678,000. In exchange, Carroll and PE6 exercised their discretion to East West’s advantage on Metro contracts. Carroll, Patel and PE6 funded the bribes by causing Metro to pay inflated costs to East West.

The information also charges Carroll with 1) two additional bribery schemes in which he solicited and accepted things of value from two unnamed Metro contractors, 2) making false statements to government agents when he denied taking cash bribes from one of the unnamed contractors, and 3) filing false tax returns for the years 2003 through 2007.

The following individuals were charged previously in connection with the Cuyahoga County corruption investigation:

DEFENDANT	ROLE	DATE CHARGED	CASE STATUS
John Kevin Kelley	Former Geographic Information Systems project manager, Cuyahoga County Engineer’s Office Former President, Parma City School District Board of Education, Principal, J. Kevin Kelley Consulting, LLC	6/12/2009	Awaiting Sentencing Guilty Plea 7/1/2009
Kevin F. Payne	Retired Chief of Staff, Engineer’s Office, Cuyahoga County	6/12/2009	Awaiting Sentencing Guilty Plea 7/1/2009
Daniel P. Gallagher	Retired Chief of Staff, Engineer’s Office, Cuyahoga County Principal, The Eagle Group	6/12/2009	Awaiting Sentencing Guilty Plea 7/2/2009
Brian Schuman	Former co-executive director, Alternatives Agency	6/12/2009	Awaiting Sentencing Guilty Plea 7/2/2009
Steven Wayne Pumper	Chief Executive Officer, DAS Construction	7/8/2009	Awaiting Sentencing Guilty Plea 7/17/2009
Dennis Dooley	Principal Office Assistant, Cuyahoga County Auditor’s Office	7/22/2009	Awaiting Arraignment 9/1/2009

If convicted, each defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ann C. Rowland and Antoinette T. Bacon, following investigation by the Cleveland office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. The investigation is ongoing.

An Information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.