Ohio demolition contractor faces federal fraud charges

An Ohio demolition contractor pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges in a Cincinnati U.S. District Court, a report by the Cincinnati Business Courier says. Doug Evans, owner of Evans Landscaping in Newtown, Ohio, his company and Vice President of Operations Jim Bailey have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and/or concealing knowledge of a felony.

According to the report, the parties allegedly were involved in a scheme to illegally obtain minority and small business contracts in the city of Cincinnati and the state of Ohio.

A previous story from the Cincinnati Business Courier says Evans, Bailey and other company employees created Ergon Site Construction to get minority and small business government certification contracts for Evans. 

Evans provided $85,000 in startup and operational funds for Ergon. The company also paid Korey Jordan, former president of Ergon, and handled accounting and office management for Ergon. Allegedly, Evans employees also coached Jordan on how to speak with city officials.

Other evidence from the indictment includes Ergon keeping its books on Evans’ internal accounting database; Jordan signing blank Ergon checks for employees; and Evans guaranteeing Ergon’s credit line, the report says.

The city awarded around $2 million in contracts to Evans and Ergon for the demolition of 100 residential structures and an unspecified amount of other contracts. In Jordan’s plea agreement, he said he conspired with Evans to create Ergon, the report says.

Ergon and Evans sued each other in 2014 with Evans claiming Ergon owed $273,000 for work it has done. Ergon countersued, claiming Evans did not share profits it received with Jordan.