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VINDY EXCLUSIVE: Witness in corruption case expected to plead guilty
Briya accused of providing benefits to former mayor, city finance director
YOUNGSTOWN
A key witness in the corruption trials of ex-Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone, former city Finance Director David Bozanich and downtown developer Dominic Marchionda is expected to plead guilty Thursday to felony charges, Sammarone’s attorney told The Vindicator.
John Shultz, Sammarone’s attorney, said Raymond Briya, a former MS Consultants Inc. vice president, is supposed to plead guilty next week in a bill of information to attempted bribery, tampering with records, obstruction of justice and theft.
Shultz said Dan Kasaris, a special Mahoning County prosecutor and a senior assistant Ohio attorney general, told him that during a Friday closed-door pretrial hearing the two had with Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney to schedule dates for Sammarone’s trial, which is to start March 16, 2020, with a final pretrial five days earlier.
The judge on July 25 granted a request from Shultz for Sammarone to have a separate trial from the other defendants over Kasaris’ objection.
Kasaris declined to comment about Briya to The Vindicator.
“That’s their star witness pleading to felonies,” Shultz said after the pretrial hearing about Briya. The felonies “deal with the investigation and obstruction of the investigation. I expect him to plead, and he won’t be sentenced right away to get his continued cooperation.”
Until the filing of the bill of information – done typically when a person agrees to plead guilty to crimes – the plea isn’t official. In addition to Shultz, other sources close to the investigation say the filing is expected Thursday.
A 101-count indictment against the three defendants and 10 of Marchionda’s companies, unsealed Aug. 20, 2018, lists John Doe 6 as an employee of Company 2 who is alleged to have provided benefits to Bozanich, Sammarone and others over at least a 10-year period in exchange for work for the company without the company’s knowledge and to have received benefits from Marchionda.
It has since been determined that Briya is John Doe 6 and MS Consultants is Company 2.
Briya couldn’t be reached Friday by The Vindicator to comment and has previously declined to respond to the newspaper’s requests to talk.
The indictment accuses the defendants and others of operating a criminal enterprise. The defendants are charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, aggravated theft and tampering with records. They’ve all pleaded not guilty.
Marchionda is accused of improperly spending at least $600,000 from city funds on personal items and of misusing an undetermined amount of money obtained from state and federal governments on the Flats at Wick, Erie Terminal Place and Wick Towers projects.
Bozanich and Sammarone are accused of taking bribes.
Briya is alleged to have made payments of more than $100,000 to Bozanich when he was finance director, and $10,000 to Sammarone when he was mayor, in return for steering city projects to MS, according to the indictment.
Seven of the purported payments to Bozanich between June 2011 and July 2013 were made in the form of entry fees to golf tournaments.
Bozanich would write a check to Briya to reimburse him, but Briya cashed the check and returned the money to Bozanich, the indictment says.
In mid-2013, Bozanich is alleged to have returned $45,000 to Briya through his travel agency to hide it from a federal investigation into his conduct.
Also, it’s alleged that Briya provided a false invoice for $105,000 on Marchionda’s Erie Terminal project – the indictment contends less than $10,000 worth of work was actually done – so the developer could pay off part of a $170,000 debt he owed to MS for the Flats project. The indictment alleges Marchionda gave Briya an undisclosed “benefit” once the debt was paid.
Marchionda has since put the Flats and Erie Terminal up for sale for $8.5 million and $6.35 million, respectively. They have not been sold.
In April, creditors filed for foreclosure of the Flats on Wick, claiming Marchionda owes more than $5.2 million.
The indictment also accuses Briya of joining two former employees – John Does 1 and 8 – of B&B Contractors and Developers – Company 1 – to form Exal Leasing LLC, which provided Bozanich with $100,000 to push a project that didn’t materialize. It’s been determined that Philip Beshara, former B&B president, is John Doe 1 and Donald D’Andrea, a former B&B vice president, is John Doe 8.
B&B filed a lawsuit last year against Beshara; Stephen Garea, an attorney and John Doe 2; and Samuel DeCarla, its former controller and John Doe 3, alleging the three engaged in a pattern of theft from the company that totaled between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.