Man gets 28-year sentence in Ohio in $100M charity scam

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

A man convicted of masterminding a $100 million, cross-country Navy veterans charity fraud was sentenced to 28 years in prison Monday.

Judge Steven Gall also ordered the defendant, who identifies himself as 67-year-old Bobby Thompson, to pay a $6 million fine. Authorities say the defendant is Harvard-trained attorney John Donald Cody.

The Ohio attorney general’s office, which handled his trial, asked the judge in a filing last week to sentence him to 41 years in prison.

The judge rejected a request for a new trial. The defense had said comments by jurors after the verdict that they were disappointed he hadn’t testified showed they were biased against him.

The defendant slumped in his chair as the sentence was read.

There was no immediate response from the sheriff’s department.