Baltimore Tax-Bribery Official Also Ran a Separate $138,000 PPP Fraud on a Fabricated Payroll Return

Gillespie was an employee of the Baltimore City Department of Finance's Revenue Collections Department. According to Gillespie's plea agreement, beginning in 2016 and continuing until 2023, he accepted bribes from property owners, typically 10 to 15 percent of the amount owed to the city, in exchange for removing or extinguishing tax, citation, and water obligations. He also accepted bribes for delaying due dates without other officials' approval. He would mark the obligations as paid in the city's records, at times sending a photo of a cashier slip showing a payment that had never been made. In one recorded exchange, an FBI undercover agent confirmed a bribe of "100 for each property," to which Gillespie replied, "yeah that's basically how I do." Gillespie told the agent he had a "girl" in "water" (the city's Department of Public Works) who could "wipe some [stuff] out." He also extended payment deadlines on eight properties by three months for $800 in bribes, which the undercover agent paid in cash during a recorded meeting. Gillespie admitted the bribery scheme netted him more than $250,000 and caused the city losses exceeding $1,250,000.¹

One of the property owners was James Carroll Erny Jr., of Glen Arm, who admitted paying Gillespie at least $25,000 in bribes from December 2019 to August 2023, sometimes in cash envelopes handed over in a men's bathroom in the city's Abel Wolman Municipal Building. On July 23, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that Judge Bennett had sentenced Erny to 13 months in prison, followed by eight months of home confinement. Erny also admitted a separate scheme that obtained $996,240 in PPP funds.²

Separately, in 2021, Gillespie and co-defendant Ahmed "Adam" Sary submitted a fraudulent PPP loan application to Cross River Bank for JAG Investments, a company Gillespie owned, falsely representing that JAG had 19 employees and average monthly payroll exceeding $55,000 in 2019. In support, they submitted a fabricated 2019 IRS Form 940 falsely stating JAG's total payments to employees that year exceeded $275,000. According to the plea agreement, the loan was funded on March 6, 2021, distributing approximately $138,000 to a Gillespie-controlled account; Gillespie agreed to pay Sary $38,000 in kickbacks for submitting the false application. After receiving the funds, Gillespie established payroll services for JAG to help substantiate a later forgiveness request.¹

The 2023 indictment gave more detail, with slightly different dates. It said Gillespie had formed JAG in August 2019 to "purchase properties and rehab in Baltimore," that the false Form 940 claimed $276,209.72 in 2019 wages when JAG had filed no tax returns for 2019 or 2020, and that the loan closed on or about March 15, 2021, for $138,104. It alleged that from March to August 2021 Gillespie ran payroll through Heartland Payment Systems for purported employees, some of whom handed back part of each payment, sometimes more than half.³

The FBI's Baltimore Field Office investigated the case, with help from the SBA Office of Inspector General and the Baltimore City Inspector General, as part of the District of Maryland COVID-19 Strike Force, one of five such strike forces the Justice Department established nationwide. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul A. Riley and Evelyn L. Cusson prosecuted the case.¹

Documents cited

Notes

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, "Former Baltimore Department Of Finance Employee Sentenced To Four Years In Connection With Bribery And Covid-19 Cares Act Scheme" (original), February 20, 2025. ↩₁ ↩₂ ↩₃ ↩₄
U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, "Baltimore County Man Sentenced for Bribing Former Baltimore City Finance Official" (original), July 23, 2026. ↩
U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, "Maryland Man Facing Federal Charges For Fraudulently Obtaining Covid-19 Cares Act Paycheck Protection Program Loan" (original), September 22, 2023. ↩