Former Cleveland Councilman Basheer Jones released from prison ahead of scheduled release date, Jones Black and a devout Muslim...By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Former Cleveland Councilman Bashear Jones, who is Black, has been released from prison ahead of his scheduled release date.
After pleading guilty to wire fraud and honest services fraud, he was sentenced in April 2025 to 28 months in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge J. Phillip Calabrese, a Republican appointed to the federal bench in the Northern District of Ohio in 2020 by President Donald Trump during his first term in office. The judge also ordered the former councilman, a Democrat, to pay more than $148,000 in restitution and to serve three years' probation after completing his sentence.
Jones' attorney, Fernando Mack, and some Greater Cleveland Black leaders, such as former congresswoman and former HUD secretary Marcia L. Fudge, as well as some Black community activists, sought leniency and probation. Fudge was among dozens of people who wrote supportive letters to the judge.
Jones, 40 years old and a devout Muslim, was an east side councilman from 2017-2021. He did not seek reelection to the city council in 2021, instead choosing to run for mayor, a race he lost in a crowded nonpartisan primary that elected current Mayor Justin Bibb, who went on to overwhelmingly beat then-council president and second-place primary finisher Kevin Kelley in the general runoff election.
The first Muslim to serve on city council, Jones was charged in a two-count information with conspiring to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud for using his role as a public official for personal financial gain by allegedly seeking to defraud multiple community stakeholders out of more than $200,000.
According to court documents, from about December 2018 to June 2021 Jones allegedly misrepresented and concealed material facts to induce nonprofit organizations to enter into a variety of arrangements that would benefit him and his romantic partner co-conspirator, who has since been charged.
Prosecutors say Jones’ schemes were devised to line his pockets by deceiving nonprofit entities into making payments toward projects they thought were for the community’s benefit, but research reveals that the situation is more complicated than it appears, since the city council, per city ordinance, must approve and sign off on community development projects, larger and more lucrative projects that routinely go to White developers without question.
The true profiteers of Cleveland's community development projects are White developers, sources said, and data show, and they rarely, if at all, face prosecution.
By Kathy Wray Coleman: Kathy Wray Coleman is a long-time Cleveland journalist, blogger, digital and social media reporter, and seasoned investigative reporter
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com
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