No jail for Mr. Ross in $4 million scheme
From Sunshine Review
November 5, 2009 A husband and wife duo in Utah cooked up a scheme that drained more than $4 million from Davis School District and the husband will not be going to jail on the charges. The wife will be sentence December 14.[1]
[edit] Sentence
John Ross and his wife created a fraudulent book scheme, extorting more than $4 million from Davis School District. John Ross was sentenced November 4 to pay a fine of $500, without jail time.
He will be required to forfeit almost $800,000 from bank accounts he and his wife, Susan Ross, own. The two are required to turn over two vehicles and homes in Layton, South Weber and Mountain Green.
[edit] The crime
The Rosses were employees of the Davis School District: he was a federal grant specialist and she was a director of federal programs, specifically the Title 1 education program. The program is meant to aid minority, disadvantaged or disabled students.
The scheme operated from 2000 to 2005 and involved producing falsified books, inflating the prices and selling them to the district.
The Rosses faced a 47-count federal indictment, including mail fraud and money laundering. The 2006 indictment stated that the couple set up a front company to photocopy books, normal retail price: $15 to $25, and hiked up the prices to as much as $80 before selling them to the school district.
Both John Ross and Susan Ross entered guilty pleas before U.S. District Judge Waddoups in October after brokering plea agreements.
John Ross pleaded guilty to one count of "placing fraudulent copyrights on stolen texts," a misdemeanor carrying a maximum fine of $2,500.
Susan Ross pleaded guilty to money laundering, considered a felony carrying a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a fine of $250,000. This is in addition to $350,115 in restitution to the school district. She will be sentenced Dec. 14.
John Ross could plead to a more lenient misdemeanor charge because "he was not employed in the same capacity" as his wife. He also has serious health concerns, prosecutor Barbara Bearnson said in October. John Ross suffered a stroke in 2002 and has had seizures since then.
[edit] Plea
John Ross told Judge Waddoups on November 4 that while he "deeply regrets" his "mistake," he was not "purposely deceitful." After this, he explained the contributions he believes he made to education in the state, including working with Senate education committees to secure additional federal funding.
He also chalked up encouraging the Davis School District to create a position for a federal grant-writing specialist among his contributions to the district. Ross said this made him able to bring $17 million in federal funds to the state.
"I always worked diligently to see that students had the tools they needed to prove themselves," John Ross said.
He also criticized both the school district (for not keeping complete and thorough documents) and the local media for its coverage of his case.
"I am deeply offended by the trash that has been printed by Salt Lake and Ogden daily papers and my voice has not yet been heard," John Ross said.[1]
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