{"id":14950,"date":"2015-08-24T10:36:41","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T17:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950"},"modified":"2015-08-24T15:29:01","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T22:29:01","slug":"feds-cleveland-man-allegedly-tried-to-bribe-a-councilman-to-get-a-liquor-licensefe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950","title":{"rendered":"Feds: Cleveland Man Allegedly Tried to Bribe a Councilman to Get a Liquor License"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"PONZI<\/a>Federal authorities allege that a East Cleveland businessman attempted to bribe a councilman in that city in exchange for support in getting a liquor license, announced\u00a0Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney in Ohio <\/strong>Friday.<\/p>\n

Mukundkumar Patel<\/strong>, 52, was charged in a criminal information with one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis councilman acted as we expect all public officials would and immediately reported a bribe offer to the FBI, who did great work following up,\u201d Dettelbach said. \u201cThe lesson of this case is simple: \u2018briber beware.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not tolerate individuals believing they can circumvent the law by bribing a public official,\u201d FBI Agent Stephen Anthony<\/strong> said. \u201cThe FBI commends the public official involved for adhering to his ethical principles by not accepting the bribe made by this business owner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are the allegation surrounding this case, officials said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Patel began renovating the former bar area of McCalls into a Convenient Food Mart<\/strong> which would sell beer and wine. Doing so would require a liquor license, which requires a written application endorsed by the city of East Cleveland, according to the information.<\/p>\n

Patel submitted a liquor license application. City officials told Patel they were not inclined to endorse his application but would consider his request after speaking with community stakeholders, according to the information.<\/p>\n

On October 15, 2014, Patel met with an East Cleveland councilman and offered to pay $2,000 if the councilman would sign the application.<\/p>\n

The councilman refused and Patel raised his offer to $3,000. The councilman again refused and Patel told the councilman to name his price, according to the information.<\/p>\n

The councilman contacted the FBI to report the bribe solicitation.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 23, 2014, Patel again met with the councilman, who was acting at the FBI\u2019s direction. Patel offered the councilman $4,000 up front and $1,000 later in return for signing Patel\u2019s beer and wine application, according to officials.<\/p>\n

The next day, Patel and the councilman met again and Patel paid him $4,000 in cash. The councilman turned the money over to the FBI, officials said.<\/p>\n

Patel is presumed innocent until proven guilty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND Federal authorities allege that a East Cleveland businessman attempted to bribe a councilman in that city in exchange for support in getting a liquor license, announced\u00a0Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[307,1570,1722],"class_list":["post-14950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","tag-bribery","tag-councilman","tag-fbi"],"yoast_head":"\nCleveland Man Alleged Tried to Bribe Councilman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Federal authorities allege that East Cleveland businessman attempted to bribe a councilman, officials announced Friday.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cleveland Man Alleged Tried to Bribe Councilman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Federal authorities allege that East Cleveland businessman attempted to bribe a councilman, officials announced Friday.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Justice Notebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-24T17:36:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-24T22:29:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/FBI-Image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Raul\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\"},\"headline\":\"Feds: Cleveland Man Allegedly Tried to Bribe a Councilman to Get a Liquor License\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-24T17:36:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-24T22:29:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950\"},\"wordCount\":360,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/FBI-Image.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Bribery\",\"Councilman\",\"FBI\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Home Main Slider\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950\",\"name\":\"Cleveland Man Alleged Tried to Bribe Councilman\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/FBI-Image.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-24T17:36:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-24T22:29:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"Federal authorities allege that East Cleveland businessman attempted to bribe a councilman, officials announced Friday.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=14950#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/FBI-Image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/FBI-Image.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":333},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"description\":\""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"width\":675,\"height\":231,\"caption\":\"American Justice Notebook\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\",\"name\":\"Raul\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Raul\"},\"description\":\"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cleveland Man Alleged Tried to Bribe Councilman","description":"Federal authorities allege that East Cleveland businessman attempted to bribe a councilman, officials announced Friday.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cleveland Man Alleged Tried to Bribe Councilman","og_description":"Federal authorities allege that East Cleveland businessman attempted to bribe a councilman, officials announced Friday.","og_url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950","og_site_name":"American Justice Notebook","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook","article_published_time":"2015-08-24T17:36:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-08-24T22:29:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":333,"url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/FBI-Image.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Raul","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Raul","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950"},"author":{"name":"Raul","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0"},"headline":"Feds: Cleveland Man Allegedly Tried to Bribe a Councilman to Get a Liquor License","datePublished":"2015-08-24T17:36:41+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-24T22:29:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950"},"wordCount":360,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/FBI-Image.jpg","keywords":["Bribery","Councilman","FBI"],"articleSection":["Home Main Slider"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950","name":"Cleveland Man Alleged Tried to Bribe Councilman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/FBI-Image.jpg","datePublished":"2015-08-24T17:36:41+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-24T22:29:01+00:00","description":"Federal authorities allege that East Cleveland businessman attempted to bribe a councilman, officials announced Friday.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14950#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/FBI-Image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/FBI-Image.jpg","width":500,"height":333},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","name":"American Justice Notebook","description":""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization","name":"American Justice Notebook","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","width":675,"height":231,"caption":"American Justice Notebook"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0","name":"Raul","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","caption":"Raul"},"description":"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.","sameAs":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14950"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14974,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14950\/revisions\/14974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}