A federal jury deliberated less than a day before finding Doug Evans, owner of Evans Landscaping, and his Vice President of Operations Jim Bailey guilty on all counts in a wire fraud case, according to the Justice Department.
Evans and Bailey were found guilty of all six counts while the company was found guilty of five. All were charged with committing wire fraud and misprision of a felony in setting up a dummy company to win minority contracts.
Prosecutors alleged during trial Evans set up a dummy company called Ergon to illegally gain millions of dollars worth of minority contracts from the City of Cincinnati.
Evans disputed the charges, saying his IT consultant, Korey Jordan, set up the company and he only stepped in when there was financial problems. After the verdict Evans' attorney Ben Dusing told WVXU he is disappointed and is reviewing the legal options.
U.S. Attorney Ben Glassman says between 2008 and 2014 the front company, Ergon, applied and received more than 100 contracts for demolition and site construction from Cincinnati as a minority contractor.
"All of this was fraudulent according to the charges in the indictment because it was not independently owned and controlled by Mr. Jordan and it did not provide useful services," says Glassman. "Instead everything about what Ergon did was owned and controlled and for the benefit of Evans."
According to the indictment, Evans Landscaping, located on Round Bottom Road, is not certified and does not qualify as a "small business enterprise," a "minority business enterprise," or economically disadvantaged under the regulations set forth by federal, state or local government programs.
Dusing says Evans was doing a favor for Jordan, a computer consultant, and loaned him money to start a minority small business.
He says eventually Evans Landscaping had "to step in and clean up certain messes it did not cause."
"Its generous and legal backing of Ergon was anything but concealed... the kind of thing one would think we would want established companies doing for minority enterprise," says Dusing, adding all of it was contained in publicly available documents.
Evans faces more than 100 years in jail if convicted on all counts of conspiracy and wire fraud.
