Ex-Chief of Staff Ronnie Simmons Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Theft

Former Congressional chief of staff Elias “Ronnie” Simmons, 51, of Laurel, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and theft of government property — capping a years-long scheme that bled a sham charity dry while padding political luxury and lining pockets with taxpayer cash.

The guilty plea, entered before U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Klindt in the Middle District of Florida, exposes the rot at the heart of a $800,000 fraud tied to the One Door for Education – Amy Anderson Scholarship Fund. Simmons admitted he and co-defendant Corrine Brown, 70, of Jacksonville, Florida, ran the charity as a personal piggy bank, soliciting donations under false pretenses while funneling nearly all funds to themselves and associates. Not a single dime went where donors were promised.

Simmons confessed that One Door, falsely pitched as a registered 501(c)(3), was never meant to help students. Of the $800,000 raised, just $1,200 went to two scholarships. The rest? Lavish events, luxury boxes at a Beyoncé concert and an NFL game, and more than $200,000 in payments for gatherings honoring Brown. Simmons personally deposited $2,100 in charity funds into Brown’s account the same day she paid her IRS taxes — a move as calculated as it was criminal.

But the theft didn’t stop there. Simmons exploited his position to install a close relative on the congressional payroll, where the individual collected over $735,000 between 2001 and early 2016 for work never performed. From 2009 to late 2015, Simmons skimmed more than $80,000 of that salary, diverting government money into his own personal accounts.

The scheme unraveled through joint investigation by the FBI’s Jacksonville Division and IRS-Criminal Investigation Tampa Field Office. U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III, Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco, FBI Special Agent in Charge Charles P. Spencer, and IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Mary Hammond all confirmed the charges, underscoring the brazen abuse of public trust.

No sentencing date has been set. But the plea marks a grim fall for Simmons, once a powerful aide in Congress, now a convicted felon whose name stands as a warning: power, unchecked, becomes plunder.