Former Cleveland City Council Member Basheer Jones pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges that he used his sway with local nonprofits to direct money to himself and a girlfriend.
Jones, 40, admitted to one counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and another count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud in a hearing before a federal magistrate. He declined to comment as he entered the Carl B. Stokes United States Courthouse alone Thursday morning. Inside he was joined by his defense attorney, Fernando Mack.
In court, a judge walked Jones through a plea agreement negotiated with federal prosecutors. There was no mention of whether the former council member had agreed to cooperate with the government on any ongoing federal investigations.
“I am here to face the consequences of my actions,” Jones said at one point during the hearing.
A passionate speaker and graduate of Morehouse College, Jones won a term representing Hough and other East Side neighborhoods on Cleveland City Council in 2017. He ran for mayor four years later but did not advance out of the crowded primary.
He will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge J. Philip Calabrese on April 1 next year.
Prosecutors accused Jones of convincing an unnamed nonprofit to hire his girlfriend as a consultant and pay her tens of thousands of dollars. He was also accused of influencing the nonprofit to spend $50,000 for a community event. Jones and others pocketed a share of that money, prosecutors said.
In 2022, federal authorities subpoenaed records from the nonprofit Famicos Foundation and from Cleveland City Hall. Famicos representatives did not return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.
The former council member was also charged with orchestrating a failed property scheme in which the nonprofit Lexington Bell Community Center was supposed to buy a building owned by his girlfriend’s company.
A second property scheme involved a land deal that Jones brokered with a subsidiary of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.
The nonprofits were not named in charging papers, but Signal Cleveland identified them using property records and City Council legislation.
Jones, who occasionally travels to Egypt and West Africa, must forfeit his passport and any firearms prior to sentencing. Federal prosecutors said they would be open to allowing him to travel domestically for speaking engagements, as long as he obtained government permission first.
