Dimora in Vegas: the FBI photos

How ironic that on the first full day of casino gambling in Cleveland, the feds release their surveillance photos of Jimmy Dimora and his posse on their ill-fated trip to Vegas.

You just know that if the Big D weren't in federal prison right now, he'd have been the first VIP through the Horseshoe's door last night.  Instead he has his memories of his romp at the Mirage's Bare Pool in March 2008.

This is a redacted photo of the reserved area for Dimora's group at the Bare Pool.  I'm guessing the black box covers up a naked sunbather. Note Dimora in the blue tank top on the upper left.  All is well in the Big D's world. 

Dimora, Michael Gabor, Steve Pumper and a guy who didn't get charged with a crime, Joey Vinciguerra, leaving the Bare Pool.  That's Gabor in gray, Pumper on the left.

 

Looks like the FBI got a key to Dimora & co.'s suite while they were out. 

 

Dimora arrives at the Prime Steakhouse at the Bellagio.  This is a still shot from a surveillance video.

 

Those casino-table cameras catch everything, from card counters to Ferris Kleem writing down the phone number of the prostitute he's sending Dimora's way.  Suzanne, I hope you've changed your number.

No smoking gun as Dimora trial opens

“This trial will take you into a world [filled] with bribery, with fraud, with conspiracy, with obstruction,” said prosecutor Antoinette Bacon, kicking off her opening statement today in the Jimmy Dimora bribery trial.

Across the room, the former Cuyahoga County commissioner turned his head to listen. His cheeks were shorn, his familiar beard gone, leaving his face looking pointy, stern, downcast.

Bacon argued that Dimora and ex-auditor Frank Russo took cash, sold jobs, tried to fix court cases, and came up with “short cuts to give some an unfair advantage over others.” Bribes, she said, helped make Dimora’s back yard “a private luxury retreat.”

“Dimora and Russo realized that some people were willing to buy [their] power,” Bacon argued. “Sometimes, Dimora and Russo were willing to sell.”

Bacon’s opener, in federal court in Akron, included no smoking gun, no single incident in which Dimora was caught explicitly making a gifts-for-favors deal. (Underwhelmingly, she promised the jurors they’d hear phone calls in which Dimora “says something like, ‘If he gets the work, he’ll buy dinner.’”)

Instead, the prosecution is planning a long march through a complex story, overwhelming in its detail. Bacon alleged a conspiracy involving 18 people, and displayed photos of them, one by one, arranged in a pyramid with Dimora and Russo at the top. It took her an hour and 40 minutes to get through it all.

The most vivid story Bacon told, of course, was set in Las Vegas. Her PowerPoint flashed color photos of Dimora’s entourage frolicking in a private cabana at Bare, the Mirage Casino’s exclusive pool. A grainy surveillance photo showed Dimora at the Prime Steakhouse; the $2,200 dinner check was reproduced next to it.

Bacon told jurors they will see video of businessman Ferris Kleem giving casino chips to Dimora. She played a phone recording of Dimora thanking Kleem for sending the “chatty” masseuse (an alleged prostitute, named Suzanne) to his hotel room. In another call, at the trip’s end, Dimora thanks Kleem for his “generosity.” During the trip, Bacon said, Dimora was calling Cleveland, inquiring about Kleem’s bid for a $38 million contract at the juvenile justice center. (Kleem didn’t get the contract.)

Over and over, Bacon yoked Dimora to Russo, his corrupt former friend now facing 21 years in prison. She said they had “an unspoken and unwritten sort of set of rules, almost a conspiracy handbook.” Rule #1, she argued: Only deal with people you trust. #2: Sometimes use an intermediary, a bag man. Dimora’s co-defendant, Michael Gabor, played both roles in several schemes, she charged. #3: Cover your tracks.

That’s what she said Dimora and Co. did after word of the FBI probe leaked in May 2008. She showed jurors checks that Dimora’s wife wrote to contractors who worked on the Dimora home the same day agents confronted businessman Steve Pumper. The prosecutor described Dimora, Russo, and Gabor meeting for breakfast to hear the news or react to it, and Dimora, county employee J. Kevin Kelley, and union leader Robert Rybak meeting in a post office parking lot at night to talk about how they’d react if the FBI swooped in.

Bacon’s statement included two more new revelations. One is that Dimora got a U.S. senator to write a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Romania about a visa application. The applicant’s friend, John Valentin, allegedly did work on Dimora’s house to reward Dimora. The senator, who was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote the letter in 2007. That means it's probably George Voinovich. He was on the foreign relations committee; Sherrod Brown wasn't.

-Adrian Maldonado, who was the county’s head of procurement and diversity in early 2008, is becoming an important figure in the trial. Maldonado had a lot of say in the more minute aspects of evaluating contract bids, since he ruled on whether bidders’ subcontractors were qualified for the job. In one phone call Bacon played, Pumper, who was trying to get work for his company Green-Source, says, “Adrian tells me right now it’s purely political. If you can convince Jimmy to hold off [on rebidding a job], he’ll do it.”

(Maldonado spoke to me for my 2009 profile of Dimora, “Life of the Party.” “If Jimmy Dimora is invested in an issue, he wants to know all the details,” he told me. “Did we do everything we needed to do? Does the aggrieved party have another shot at something else? The second bidder, is he clean?” Dimora or his aides might ask if a contract can be rebid, he said, or they might ask what the law says about the bidding process. “He never said to me, ‘Adrian, your job is on the line,’ ” Maldonado says. “He never asked me to do anything I might be ashamed of.”)

Jurors also got to see a lot of pictures of Dimora’s back yard patio, decked out with gleaming silver appliances and new wood furnishings with granite countertops. They got a long look at a photo of Dimora’s Beanie Wells jersey.

Bacon described the trial to come as a “journey” through a “dark world,” and promised to introduce the jurors to “travel guides” who’ll walk them through it, including Frank Russo.

(Note to concerned readers: Don’t worry, I’m not violating the judge’s ban on blogging in the courthouse. I’m writing from a coffeehouse a block away.)

FBI investigated failed Ameritrust Tower sale, asbestos contract

Now's the season when we learn new details about the Cuyahoga County corruption scandal, including the stuff the FBI investigated that hasn't led to charges. Before Jimmy Dimora goes on trial next week, we're seeing a flurry of court filings that reveal a lot about the feds' early moves in the probe.

Here's the biggest news so far. The judge's latest opinion reveals that two of the seven alleged schemes the FBI was investigating as of late 2007 involved the Ameritrust Tower. The FBI showed an interest in the county's $22 million purchase of it and failed attempt to sell it, as well as a $7 million contract to remove asbestos from it.

We've known for a while that the FBI was curious about the county's vacant skyscraper. The search warrant executed on Dimora's office in 2008 asked for documents showing his decision-making on the Ameritrust project. This is the first time in 3 1/2 years we've learned anything more.

Judge Sara Lioi never writes the word "Ameritrust," but it's clear which building she's talking about in her opinion. Lioi explains several steps the FBI took to assemble probable cause to believe a crime had been committed before it asked permission to tap Dimora buddy Steve Pumper's phone in December 2007. She describes a conversation between Pumper and a confidential source who's wearing a wire -- probably Cleveland housing inspector Bobby Cuevas -- about a building that is clearly the Ameritrust Tower:

On November 15, 2007, the Cuyahoga County Commissioners voted to place the property in question up for sale.... a number of calls were placed on the evening of November 15th between, variously, Dimora, Company A, Pumper, and Michael Forlani... Pumper, after rubbing his fingers together in a "money" gesture, stated that the County Commissioners often "want a little action"; and Pumper indirectly indicated to the confidential source that the reason the County had opted to purchase the now-for-sale building in the first place instead of another property under consideration was because the owner of the other property refused to pay bribes or kickbacks.

The main competition for The Jacobs Group, which sold the Ameritrust Tower to the county in 2005, was Forest City, which offered to lease the Higbee Building to the county, and David Goldberg of the former Ohio Savings Bank, who offered a lease on the 668 Euclid building.

Next, Lioi describes an alleged "scheme" that clearly involves the contract to remove asbestos from the Ameritrust Tower. In August 2007, Dimora and Tim Hagan voted to award the asbestos contract to the second-lowest bidder, local company Precision Environmental, instead of the low bidder, St. Louis company Midwest Asbestos Abatement. (Peter Lawson Jones voted against giving the contract to Precision.)

In the judge's words:

[One scheme involved] the bidding process for a contract for "soft demolition" in a building owned by the County. ... a confidential source reported that Dimora had close ties to the individuals who owned a contracting company that had submitted the second-lowest bid... another confidential source reported (second-hand) that several Cuyahoga County officials held a private meeting at which they decided to award the contract to the second-place company despite its higher bid; this second confidential source also reported that a public employee close to Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo told the source that Russo and Dimora had been waiting for a company like the second-place company to need their help...

Sounds ominous, but the judge's summary may help explain why the FBI's interest in the contract did not lead to charges. Some of the FBI's suspicions were based on second-hand stories.

It's also worth noting that Dimora and Hagan awarded the contract to Precision based on the advice of their staff. I interviewed some of those staffers in 2008, and they seemed to strongly believe Precision was the best company for the job. You can read about the asbestos controversy and the purchase of the tower in my June 2008 story "Tower Play."

Also, Dimora's friend Bobby DiGeronimo, whose family owns Precision, spoke to me for "Life of the Party," my October 2009 Dimora profile. He told me that he and Dimora didn't speak about the asbestos contract until after the vote.

{Update, 1/6/12: Interesting -- DiGeronimo's relationship with Dimora may come up in the trial. DiGeronimo spoke to me in 2009 for my Dimora profile. “To this day, Jimmy has never asked me for anything except sports tickets,” he told me. Now the feds want to talk about those gifts at trial. They're not drawing a connection with the asbestos contract, but with a land sale DiGeronimo bidded on. He tells the Plain Dealer he did nothing wrong. And yes, this is the same Bobby DiGeronimo from the Ohio State football scandal. Dimora got his famous Beanie Wells jersey at a fundraiser for DiGeronimo's charity.}

Two final notes, giving credit where it's due. Fox 8 reported in fall 2007 that the FBI was investigating the Ameritrust asbestos contract. Now we know that Fox 8 was right, and was the first local media outlet to report on the corruption investigation. Also, the Plain Dealer has long claimed that Bobby Cuevas was a key figure in the probe, to the point where they referred to the county corruption investigation and the feds' stings of crooked Cleveland inspectors as part of the same investigation. I had my doubts and said so. But the judge's opinion seems to suggest that Cuevas was one of the feds' two best sources on Dimora and Pumper in 2007.

Dimora defends himself: "Who doesn't argue to try to get a better price?"

Jimmy Dimora's talking again, trying to poke holes in the federal investigation of him, giving us more glimpses of his potential defense.

"We’re very confident," he told Duane Pohlman of NewsChannel 5 on Thursday. "I feel that I’ve done nothing wrong."

Dimora thinks he's found a weakness in the case the feds are building: the latest two contractors who've pleaded guilty to bribing him with home improvements didn't do any work for the county.

This is true: Nicholas Zavarella and John Valentin say they bribed Dimora to get recommendations for friends and family, not to get county work. (See my posts here and here.) Dimora says he's probably written thousands of recommendation letters.

"When I’m personally going to use them for my own use, I try to get companies and businesses that do no work with the government that I’m involved with," Dimora told Pohlman. He said his Ohio Ethics Commission disclosure forms list contractors who gave him discounts.

"I pretty much try to disclose for any type of discounting or any gift that I receive. Most of these people are friends." Dimora said he haggled with those friends for discounted work. "Who doesn’t argue to try to get a better price on work being done?"

Dimora also claimed a forthcoming state audit will show that his personal dealings did not involve taxpayer dollars. County staff "have been told by the auditing firm that the audits are clean, and they’re good, and they show that all the bids that were approved are all the lowest and best bids," he said.

Should we buy Jimmy's latest defense? Well, what he's saying may be true, but at most it highlights the gray areas in the feds' investigation of him. Dimora didn't address the prosecutors' claim that he didn't pay his contractor buddies until he learned the FBI was after him. Or the allegations that Dimora took $33,000 in cash and $60,000 in work from Steve Pumper, whose companies were very much involved in county business.

But we're seeing more and more of Dimora's defense emerge, and he's sounding a consistent theme: He still insists publicly that he's done nothing wrong.

Pohlman, NewsChannel 5's chief investigator, is good at getting Dimora to open up. The most infamous quotes from Dimora's already-legendary July press conference -- “I’m not an angel, but I’m no crook,” and “I’m not doing anything different than any other public official does” -- were responses to Pohlman's questioning. His interview style is probing, but seeks understanding; his questions sound almost sympathetic, but zero in on key parts of the charges.

Like other TV reporters, Pohlman also benefits from Dimora's running feud with the Plain Dealer. Dimora's decided the paper's out to get him, so he'd rather argue with PD reporters than give them straight answers. On Thursday, Dimora complained to Pohlman about the paper in front of PD reporter Henry Gomez. Awkward!

(You can watch most of Pohlman's interview with Dimora by clicking the six-minute video embedded above. The segment that aired on NewsChannel 5 on Thursday night, which includes a few more quotes, can be seen here. To read my Oct. 2009 profile of Dimora, "Life of the Party," click here.)

Patio party at Jimmy's! Another contractor pleads guilty

More swag for Jimmy Dimora!

That's if you believe construction contractor Nicholas Zavarella, who pleaded guilty yesterday to bribing the county commissioner with a retaining wall around his pool, masonry columns in his back yard, and brick walls in his outdoor kitchen. (Patio party at Jimmy's! Must've been good times, until the hammer came down.)

Total value: $25,000 to $28,000. Total the Big D paid: nothing, the feds say -- until Jimmy got a tip that the feds were on to him. Then, a $500 check and a belated request for an invoice.

So what? you, the scandal-fatigued public, might say. We already know Steve Pumper pleaded guilty to bribing Dimora with a patio roof, barbecue shelter and bathhouse, valued at $60,000 -- oh, and $33,000 in cash. And that John Valentin of granite retailer Salva Stone Design is accused of bribing him by installing granite in Dimora's indoor and outdoor kitchens and master bathroom ($3,250).

Well, here are a few so-whats. First, we're seeing the feds tighten the noose on Dimora, lining up witnesses. (Here is where I'll add the usual disclaimers: Dimora has not been charged with a crime, he proclaims his innocence, and the charges don't name him. Once again, the feds call him "Public Official 1.")

Second, a pattern is emerging. Every time another contractor admits he didn't bill Dimora for his services until months or years after the fact, the idea that Dimora just got good deals and paid late gets stretched thinner, and the feds color a bit more gray area with a little more black.

Third, Dimora's potential defense is emerging. It's not exactly, when does a gift become a bribe? It's: Putting in a good word for someone isn't an illegal favor.

Take a look at this quote from the Feb. 25 Plain Dealer:

Dimora's attorney Richard Lillie said Dimora helped Zavarella's daughter get a teaching job, but did nothing wrong.

"Writing a reference letter for somebody is not bribery," Lillie said.

What I said in my October profile of Dimora, "Life of the Party," still holds up: So far, the feds "never claim that he single-handedly rigged a bid or steered a contract, " I wrote then. "The filings depict Dimora doing little favors: He puts in a good word for people, nudges, recommends, asks for a meeting to be moved up, calls the county staff to see if anything can be done for a buddy — and takes gifts from his friends before or after."

That's the gray area Dimora's lawyer could exploit in a trial. (Not that I assume Dimora won't cut a deal with the feds -- it may well be in his best interest.)

Finally, the Zavarella charge gives us another quick glimpse at how Dimora allegedly acted when news came that the FBI tried to flip his pal, Pumper. (From the charging document, with Dimora and Zavarella's names substituted for "PO1" and "defendant." ZBC is Zavarella's company:)
==
Dimora asked Zavarella to send him a bill for the work ZBC had performed at Dimora's residence. Dimora told Zavarella that something was happening and Dimora did not want Zavarella to get involved because Zavarella did not do county work. Dimora referenced Pumper's divorce and said that there were going to be some issues.

Zavarella sent an invoice to Dimora falsely stating that $6,687 worth of work had been completed "as of 3/31/08," when as Zavarella then well knew, the work had been completed in 2007 and earlier and was valued at more than $6,687.

Feds: Russo got $1.2m in cash kickbacks

"During the course of the conspiracy, PO2 received approximately $1,220,000 in kickbacks."

--From federal prosecutors' extortion conspiracy charge against former Frank Russo employee Sandy Klimkowski

Now we know how big the FBI's local corruption investigation is: Really big. The feds believe county auditor Frank Russo is a million-dollar crook.

New federal charges suggest Russo got $1.22 million in cash kickbacks over 11 years, delivered monthly in manila envelopes, in exchange for outsourcing the $21 million job of appraising every commercial property in Cuyahoga County. The alleged bag woman was Sandy Klimkowski, a top assistant of Russo's until last week. She purportedly got $154,000 in cash herself. Her lawyer says she'll plead guilty to the charges against her.

The Cuyahoga County corruption scandal has now brought our system of commercial property appraisal -- the core of our tax base -- into question. Treasurer Jim Rokakis and former auditor Tim McCormack are sounding huge alarms. This pair of stories in today's Plain Dealer suggests that the alleged conspirators may have not only corrupted the appraisal contract, they may have tampered with or influenced some of the appraisals themselves. {Update, 11/1: Richard Blake, the attorney who reviewed the county business that the investigation touches on, reported that he did not find evidence of tampered appraisals. His report is online here.}

Rokakis wants state auditor Mary Taylor and attorney general Richard Cordray to investigate. Taylor's spokesperson says she may well start a special audit of Russo's office. It's high time. Her special audit of the county recorder's office, requested by the county commissioners after Pat O'Malley left the job, found that O'Malley had wasted $1 million a year. What would Taylor find in Russo's books?

The feds haven't charged Russo or named him in the Klimkowski charges, but their code phrase, Public Official 2, is no mystery to Cleveland at this point. The description of PO2 in the Kevin Kelley charges fit only Russo, and it fits only him in the Klimkowski charges now. County commissioners Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones have called for Russo to resign. So has Lakewood Mayor Ed Fitzgerald, who wants Russo's job.

{Update, 9/24: Jones and Hagan -- and Jimmy Dimora! -- have also called for Taylor and Cordray to do a special performance audit. Here's the cleveland.com story on Jones and Hagan's statements at the county commission meeting. The photo shows Dimora's seat empty -- he left the room during the discussion about Russo, but signed the audit request.}

Klimkowski also faces charges that she corrupted the Maple Heights school district while she was a school board member. She allegedly got free home improvements -- a free pool deck, a free bay window, free aluminum siding -- from Steve Pumper in exchange for help getting 20 contracts with the Maple Heights schools for Pumper's former company, DAS Construction. She and a deceased attorney for the district, Lou Damiani, allegedly arranged to use school district money to buy "electronic equipment, household items, a swimming pool heater and consumables" for their personal use.

"One effect of the conspiracy was that [the district] had fewer resources with which to serve its students," prosecutors wrote.

The new allegations were filed Friday. (Sorry I didn't write about them earlier -- I was on vacation.) Here are links to the charges and the U.S. Attorney's press release, both in pdf form.

Dimora returns to work, says he's taken his case to Congress

Jimmy Dimora returned to work today, participated in most of the county commissioners' meeting, and told reporters later that he has written to Congress, asking it to investigate the investigation of him.

His comments, at a press conference late this morning, were mostly a tamer version of his dramatic statements two weeks ago, when he accused several local figures and entities of conspiring against him.

Today, Dimora said he and his lawyer sent a letter on Friday or Monday to the House Judiciary Committee, asking for an investigation into whether the U.S. Attorney's office was investigating him for politically biased reasons. He distributed copies of this 2008 report by the Judiciary Committee, which examines allegations of selective prosecution of Democrats in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other states.

Dimora said he would not take a leave of absence, as Hagan and Jones called on him to do last week. However, he did absent himself from one vote today, Jones and Hagan's decision to ask voters to create a charter review commission. Dimora said he did not want that proposal to be attacked as his idea instead of Jones'. "I had nothing to do with it," he said.

Dimora acknowledged that contractor Steve Pumper, charged with bribery conspiracy in federal court last week, is a friend and neighbor of his. Dimora reiterated his innocence and accused his former associates facing federal charges of lying about him in exchange for lighter sentences.

"People in trouble have done some serious things," he said. "I haven't. I have done nothing wrong." He said his former friends were receiving "less jail time if they tell a good story."

Dimora insisted that the county acted fairly and impartially when it took some of the actions mentioned in last week's charges against Pumper, such as a loan for Pumper's company GreenSource and a real estate deal Pumper allegedly called Dimora to try to advance. Stung by accusations that the county had become a patronage hiring hall under his watch, Dimora noted he proposed and implemented a buyout that shrank the size of the county staff: "There are 2,000 less employees today than when [I] started."

Dimora's press conference, in the office of county administrator Jim McCafferty, began near the end of the county commission meeting. Dimora had participated in some of that meeting, voting on most items of business, but he left just before Jones proposed creating a charter review commission. After Jones and Hagan voted to do so, citizens concerned about the corruption investigation began to speak. McCafferty interrupted a 17-year-old speaker from Solon to tell reporters the Dimora press conference had already started.

Dimora a no-show; Hagan, Jones call for him to take leave of absence

Jimmy Dimora didn't show up at the county commissioners' meeting today, and his colleagues, Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones, called on him to take a 60-day leave of absence.

"We believe that the work of this county is important, and to be distracted during the most difficult economic times that we're confronted with is really a strain on our staff," Hagan said. "We would hope the public understands we are doing everything we can to do their work."

Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Jones and Hagan both expressed their anger about Dimora's alleged conduct. Hagan criticized Dimora's statements at his press conference last week. It sounds like Dimora has lost their confidence and patience.

Jones said he and Hagan decided to ask Dimora to take a leave last night after reading the federal charges filed yesterday against Steve Pumper. The former contractor is accused of bribing Dimora with $97,000 in cash, gifts, and work on his home in exchange for at least eight official favors. Pumper issued a statement yesterday admitting wrongdoing.

"If the allegations .... are true, then we have all been betrayed," Jones said. "We have been betrayed as colleagues. We have been betrayed as long-time friends and associates of Jimmy Dimora."

Hagan called the conduct alleged in the filing "abhorrent" and "disgusting," though he said the allegations should be judged in court. "Peter and I know we have to maintain some decorum here. We've indicated how angry we are. We are very angry, believe me," Hagan said.

Hagan also criticized Dimora's claim last week that the federal investigation is politically motivated.

"The integrity of the federal court and federal prosecutor should not be in question," Hagan said. "Those who serve, whether at the United States government or Cuyahoga County, are public people who serve with real integrity in purpose. ... We need to be very careful, in my view, of guilt by association and wild comments. This board -- at least the two of us -- will refrain from conversation and comments that we think diminish those who serve."

Later, I asked Hagan if those comments referred in part to Dimora's press conference. Yes, he said.

Hagan said he and Jones plan to never allow Dimora to be the deciding vote on an issue before the board. If the two disagree on something, they just won't move forward. "Commissioner Jones and I will vote in the majority on issues before this board," Hagan said. "Neither of us will vote in a majority with Dimora [alone]. Why? Because we're doing the investigation."

The county's internal inquiry into all the contracts mentioned in the federal charges and subpoenas will continue, and broaden to include yesterday's filing, Hagan and Jones said. David Lambert of the county prosecutor's office, the commission's counsel, is involved in that effort. An outside attorney, Richard Blake, may be officially hired at next week's meeting.

The two commissioners said they had meant to ask Dimora to go on leave in person today. But with Dimora a no-show, they had to communicate their request to his staff. They haven't heard back yet. "Peter and I are as surprised as anyone that he didn't show up today," Hagan said. They are suggesting a 60-day leave, Jones explained, because a commissioner can be removed for abandoning his job if he is absent for more than 90 days straight.

A Fox 8 reporter asked Hagan and Jones: "Your anger, your exasperation, has it pushed either one of you to consider resigning yourselves, because you just don't want to be associated with this any longer?"

"We are not Sarah Palin," Jones said. "We aren't bailing."

"It's crossed my mind," Hagan said. "Why put up with it? But on the other hand, public life is an honorable thing. And I'm not going to let this define my service to the community."

More corruption charges implicate Dimora

More bad news for Jimmy Dimora: Steve Pumper, former official for the companies D-A-S Construction and Green-Source Products, is charged with conspiring to bribe Dimora and conspiring to obstruct justice.

The filing alleges that Dimora accepted cash, gifts, and construction work totaling almost $100,000 from Pumper in exchange for using his influence as county commissioner to do at least eight separate favors for him, including help obtaining more than $3 million in county loans.

As with last month's charges against Kevin Kelley and others, the charging document does not name Dimora, but it describes a "Public Official #1" whose description matches him. For instance, the feds charge that Pumper built a roof over a patio at PO1's house in 2004 or 2005 and a barbecue shelter for him in 2007. That matches the times when Dimora and his wife took out permits with the Independence building department declaring that they, as the homeowners, were building a patio roof and a barbecue shelter.

WKYC TV 3's website has posted a statement from Pumper, released through his attorney. "I accept full responsibility for my actions," Pumper is quoted as saying. D-A-S' statement says the company itself is not a target of the investigation.

The charges claim that Pumper gave Dimora about $33,000 in cash between early 2007 and May 2008, and paid "on numerous occasions" for "entertainment, dinners and drinks for PO1 and his friends and family," including 12 Cavaliers tickets worth a total of $3,180. The feds also say Pumper did about $61,000 of work on Dimora's home without billing Dimora or getting paid from 2001 to 2007. "From time to time, PO1 asked for invoices; however, PUMPER did not expect PO1 would pay full value for the work," the charges say.

Pumper is also charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. On May 23, 2008, the filing says, Pumper gave $2,000 in cash to Cleveland building inspector Bobby Cuevas. That day, FBI agents interviewed Pumper about the cash he gave Cuevas and also asked him to cooperate in a public corruption investigation. (This is the link between the city and county corruption investigations that the Plain Dealer has been hinting at for almost a year.)

The filing says:

On or about May 23, 2008, and only after PO1 became aware of the investigation, PO1 made the first in a series of small payments for the work DAS performed in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2007, to make it appear that PO1 did not intend at the time the work was done to be influenced and rewarded in his official position by PUMPER.

It was a further part of the conspiracy that POI and PUMPER planned to explain the fact that PO1 had not paid for any of the work DAS had performed on his residence by falsely claiming that DAS had not yet completed the work.

Allegedly, Dimora paid DAS $600 on May 23, $723.30 on June 30, and $4,000 on October 22. The last payment came after the July raid on Dimora's office.

Here's a nice detail about Pumper's alleged cover-up: the day after the FBI confronted him, Pumper is said to have thrown his home computer's hard drive into Lake Erie!

The charges allege that, in exchange for the cash, meals, entertainment, and work on his home, Dimora helped Pumper and DAS in several ways. Here are some of them:

-Dimora allegedly agreed to assist Pumper in getting a $24,000 contract for DAS at the Courthouse Square project in 2004.

-The filing says Dimora "used his influence to assist PUMPER in obtaining a County loan and an extension on the loan" for the DAS project at the Parkview-Allerton Apartments on E. 13th St. "Although the County granted the extension in March 2008, the extension was not used because other funding was obtained." The document later says DAS got two loans of up to $1 million each.

-Dimora is said to have supported Green-Source's applications for $1 million in county loans for its building on Ivanhoe in Collinwood in 2008.

-Dimora, the feds say, talked about getting Green-Source public contracts and getting an unnamed public employee, "PE4," hired by Green-Source as a consultant. (Another Green-Source executive vetoed hiring PE4.) Allegedly, he and Pumper talked about Dimora possibly becoming a Green-Source consultant after he left office.

-Dimora set up meetings between Green-Source and county officials at Delmonico's Restaurant in Independence so that Green-Source could try to obtain work on the county's juvenile justice center project, according to the filing:

On or about March 31, 2008, PO1 had a conversation with PUMPER in which PUMPER asked PO1 what he was doing. PO1 replied in a jocular manner, "Oh what the f-k, I'm doin' nothing, I'm trying to make calls, make a living, help my friends make more money than they already got." Later in the conversation, PO1 told PUMPER that POI was trying to arrange a meeting for the next day at Delmonico's Restaurant with the architectural and design services contractor ("the architect") for the JJC.

On or about April 1, 2008, PUMPER, PO1 and the architect met and POI promoted Green-Source to the architect. ... The architect told PUMPER that the architect would work with the Green-Source design team in an effort to use Green-Source products for the JJC.

The charges are contained in an "information," not a grand jury indictment, usually a sign that the defendant has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with the investigation.

I've put in a call to Dimora's attorney, Richard Lillie.

Here is the U.S. Attorney's press release. You can read the entire charging document as a pdf by clicking here.