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Elias Ronnie Simmons, Fraud and Theft Charges, Florida 2023
Jacksonville, FL – Elias Ronnie Simmons, 51, of Laurel, Maryland, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of theft of government property before U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Klindt of the Middle District of Florida.
In connection with his guilty plea, Simmons admitted that, between late 2012 and early 2016, he and a co-defendant, former Congresswoman Corrine Brown, 70, of Jacksonville, Florida, participated in a fraudulent scheme involving the One Door for Education – Amy Anderson Scholarship Fund (One Door) in which the two defendants and others acting on their behalf solicited more than $800,000 in charitable donations based on false representations.
Simmons admitted that he and Brown solicited donations from individuals and corporate entities that Brown knew by virtue of her position in the U.S. House of Representatives, many of which the defendants led to believe that One Door was a properly registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, when, in fact, it was not.
Simmons further admitted that, contrary to his and Brown’s misrepresentations, Brown, Simmons, One Door president Carla Wiley, and others, used the vast majority of One Door donations for their personal and professional benefit, including tens of thousands of dollars in cash deposits that Simmons made to Brown’s personal bank accounts.
Simmons admitted that he engaged in such cash transactions involving funds from the One Door bank account at Brown’s direction, including depositing $2,100 in One Door funds into Brown’s personal bank account the same day that Brown wrote a check for a similar amount to pay taxes to the IRS.
Simmons also admitted that he misused his position as Brown’s chief of staff to obtain congressional employment for a close relative, who received over $735,000 in government salary payments between 2001 and early 2016 despite performing no known work for the U.S. House of Representatives.
A sentencing hearing has not yet been set for Simmons. The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS-CI, with the assistance of the U.S. House of Representatives Office of the Inspector General.
Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: Public Corruption|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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