03282012 - News Article - Gary businessman sentenced to prison for fraud, tax evasion

Gary businessman sentenced to prison for fraud, tax evasion

Post-Tribune (IN)
March 28, 2012

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Gary businessman Jerry Haymon will serve about three and a half years in prison after admitting he took part in a mortgage fraud scheme and kept more than $600,000 in income taxes from the federal government. 

U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano also ordered Haymon to pay about $255,000 in restitution to several lending companies. 

Lozano said he considered the sentence, 41 months, to be fairly short considering the amount of money that was part of Haymon ’s fraud. 

“I really don’t know that this sends a message,” the judge told Haymon during the sentencing hearing Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. District Court in Hammond. 

However, Lozano said he wanted to respect the agreement that Haymon had reached with the government, who agreed to recommend the minimum of sentencing guidelines in exchange for Haymon pleading guilty to four counts of wire fraud and one count of income tax evasion. The wire fraud counts were connected to a scheme Haymon ran with co-defendants Sheila Chandler, Jacquelyn Drago-Hunter and Phillip Rucker to sell four Gary houses for tens of thousands of dollars more than they were worth and pocket the extra money by placing fake liens on the homes. 

The Post-Tribune has reported that Haymon , who also ran the not-for-profit Coalition for Concern, used money from the city of Gary to renovate one of the houses in this case. 

Haymon also pleaded guilty in a separate case to embezzling about $1 million from his charity, Coalition for Concern, from 2004. He never reported the extra income to the federal government. 

His attorney, John Cantrell, argued that Haymon had good intentions for the city of Gary and that his original plan in rehabbing houses was to help the city put houses back on the tax roll. 

“He wanted to try to put Gary back on the map,” Cantrell said. 

Haymon apologized and said he accepted responsibility for the crimes. However, he said many of his deals were not illegal, and he also stressed he raised his children on his own and gives presents to several needy families a year. 

“I think I’ve done a whole lot for the community,” he said. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Bell questioned Haymon ’s assertion that he wasn’t greedy, however, and pointed out that one of the houses involved in the scheme went into foreclosure and had fallen off the city’s tax rolls. 

Haymon is the first of the defendants to be sentenced. Drago-Hunter and Chandler both pleaded guilty, and Rucker was found guilty by a jury last year.