Amer Ahmad, Bribery, Ohio 2014

Amer Ahmad, Former Ohio Deputy Treasurer, Faces 15-Year Prison Sentence for Bribery Scheme

Amer Ahmad, a 40-year-old resident of Chicago, has been extradited from Pakistan to the United States to serve a 15-year prison sentence for his role in a bribery and money laundering scheme involving the Ohio Treasurer’s Office.

According to the indictment, 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 they 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.

Ahmad 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.

Ahmad has remained in custody, and the U.S. government requested his extradition. On December 1, 2014, Ahmad was sentenced in abstentia 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.

A remand hearing has been scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 28, before U.S. District Judge Watson. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Central Ohio Public Corruption Task Force, which includes special agents from the FBI and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.