Retired Cleveland police officer charged with tax violations involving his security business
CLEVELAND, Ohio April 28 2021 A retired Cleveland police officer has been accused of tax violations in a federal indictment that involves his security business.
Harry Gant, 70, of Mentor will appear for an arraignment Thursday before U.S. District Judge James Gwin on four charges of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.
The indictment alleges that Gant failed to report his total income for the calendar years 2014 through 2017.
The charges do not indicate how much Gant failed to disclose. They added only that he did not report “gross receipts generated by the operation of his business.” The indictment said Gant’s actual income “substantially exceeded the amounts reported.”
Gant worked 39 years for Cleveland police, retiring in 2012. He made his name, however, in various security businesses in which he helped dole out well-paying jobs to off-duty officers, including top captains and commanders.
Critics have charged the issue is a major conflict of interest that has been a problem in the department for years.
Gant was once a top official with Tenable Protective Services, one of Cleveland’s largest security firms, and later opened his own business, Gant & Associates, according to published reports and state records.
After retiring from Cleveland police, he served as a special deputy for the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department.
Gant’s charges are unique. The Internal Revenue Service investigated the case with the FBI, which seldom, if ever, gets involved in tax cases unless there are other issues that need to be examined.
A spokeswoman for the FBI said the agencies often work together on cases and are part of various task forces. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to discuss the case.
Defense attorney J. Scott Broome said only that Gant will enter a not guilty plea Thursday, and “we look forward to engaging in discovery with the government.”
Gant has long been a go-to guy for security needs in Cleveland. He has handled major events across Northeast Ohio.
His business and those affiliated with him have worked sporting events, helped with traffic for marathons and triathlons and watched over problems at functions such as Glenn Beck’s “Rally for America,” which drew about 10,000 people to the West Bank of the Flats in 2003.
The link between Cleveland police and security businesses has long been a close one. In 2002, then-Mayor Jane Campbell became angry over allegations that city police steered security work for major movie productions to businesses that hired off-duty officers.
Campbell even questioned whether firms pressured movie producers and the Greater Cleveland Film Commission into paying officers for their work. Other cities have provided police-related security for no charge.
Cleveland.com
