Retired Cleveland police sergeant charged with tax violations involving his safety enterprise

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A retired Cleveland police sergeant was charged with tax violations in a federal indictment involving his security business.

Mentor’s 70-year-old Harry Gant is due to appear before U.S. District Judge James Gwin Thursday on charges of assisting and assisting in filing false tax returns. The indictment alleges that Gant did not report his total earnings for the calendar years 2014 through 2017.

The fees don’t tell you how much Gant hasn’t disclosed. They only added that he had no “gross receipts from the operation of [his] Corporations. “The indictment stated that Gant’s actual income” significantly exceeded the reported amounts “.

Gant worked for the Cleveland Police Department for 39 years and retired in 2012. However, he made a name for himself in various security companies where he helped give well-paying jobs to off-duty officials, including top captains and commanders.

Critics have alleged the issue is a serious conflict of interest that has been a problem in the department for years.

Gant was once a top civil servant at 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 the Cleveland Police Department, he served as the Special Representative for the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department.

Gant’s fees are unique. The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the case with the FBI, which rarely, if ever, gets involved in tax cases unless there are other issues that need to be investigated.

An FBI spokeswoman said the agencies often work together on cases and are part of different task forces. A US law firm spokesman declined to discuss the case.

Defense attorney J. Scott Broome said only that Gant will plead not guilty on Thursday and “we look forward to making a discovery with the government.”

Gant has long been a security contact in Cleveland. He has hosted major events in northeast Ohio.

His company and its affiliates have participated in sporting events, assisted with traffic for marathons and triathlons, and monitored issues at events such as Glenn Beck’s “Rally for America,” which in 2003 brought about 10,000 people to the West Bank of the Flats.

The link between the Cleveland Police Department and security companies has long been strong. In 2002, then Mayoress Jane Campbell became furious over allegations that city police had directed security work for large film productions to companies that had hired off duty officers.

Campbell even questioned whether companies were pressuring film producers and the Greater Cleveland Film Commission to pay officials to do their jobs. Other cities have provided police security free of charge.