GREEN INITIATIVE BACKER INDICTED FOR FALSE STATEMENTS ON FINANCE REPORTS

Posted on 12/16/2020

Defendant: John A. Clark

Prosecutor Ron O’Brien announces that the Franklin County Grand Jury has returned a 4 count indictment against John A. Clark, age 50. The counts include two counts of Election Falsification, both felonies of the fifth degree and two counts of Tampering with Government Records, both felonies of the third degree.
 
The counts relate to false information provided on Ohio Campaign Finance Reports filed with the City of Columbus Campaign Finance Office filed on July 31, 2019 and August 18, 2019. The false statements related to the source and/or amount of contributions made to the Clean Energy Ballot Initiative. The ballot initiative was to redirect $57 million dollars in Columbus taxpayer money to a loosely defined clean-energy initiative.
 
The case was investigated by the Columbus Police Departments Economic Crime Unit. Prosecutor O’Brien said,  “These false statements hit at the core of our elections and was an attempt to mislead the City of Columbus and its voters.”