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A former Deputy Treasurer of Ohio has been extradited from Pakistan to the United States to serve a 15-year prison sentence for his role in a multimillion dollar bribery and money laundering scheme involving the Ohio Treasurer’s Office.
Amer Ahmad, 40, of Chicago, pleaded guilty in December 2013 to federal program bribery and conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, honest services wire fraud, and money laundering. Following his guilty plea, Ahmad fled the United States and was arrested by Pakistani authorities while attempting to illegally enter that country. He has remained in custody and the U.S. government requested his extradition. On Dec. 1, 2014, Ahmad was sentenced in absentia by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson of the Southern District of Ohio to 15 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $3.2 million in illicit proceeds.
“Today’s extradition demonstrates the never-ceasing efforts by investigators at home and abroad to bring to justice those who abuse positions of power to defraud,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark T. D’Alessandro of the Southern District of Ohio, is quoted saying in an Aug. 26 press release.
According to admissions in connection with his guilty plea, from January 2009 through January 2011, Ahmad used his position as Deputy Treasurer to direct official state of Ohio business to securities broker Douglas E. Hampton in return for bribes. Ahmad and Chicago businessman Joseph Chiavaroli concealed the payments received from Hampton by passing them through the accounts of their landscaping business. Hampton also funneled more than $123,000 to Mohammed Noure Alo, an attorney and lobbyist who was Ahmad’s close personal friend and business associate. Over the course of the scheme, Hampton paid in excess of $500,000 in bribes and received, in exchange, approximately $3.2 million in commissions for 360 securities trades on behalf of the Ohio Treasurer’s Office.
Hampton and Alo were sentenced in November 2014 to 45 months in prison and 48 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the scheme. Chiavaroli was sentenced in December 2014 to 18 months in prison.
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