Former Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld sentenced to 16 months in prison

 

Former Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, whose stunning political fall after being charged with public corruption in 2020 changed the course of Cincinnati politics, was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison Tuesday – 15 months after being convicted of bribery and attempted extortion.

 

Sittenfeld's sentence included one year of supervised release in addition to his prison term. He was also fined $40,000.

 

The one-time mayoral front-runner will not have to report to prison until Dec. 1 at the earliest. At the Oct. 10 hearing, U.S. District Judge Douglas Cole allowed Sittenfeld to remain free while he asks the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule Cole's decision to not allow the former city councilman to remain free while he appeals his conviction.

 

The Federal Bureau of Prisons will have to assign Sittenfeld to a prison to serve out his sentence. His attorneys requested he serve his sentence at the Ashland Federal Correctional Institution, a low-security prison for male inmates in Kentucky.

 

Sittenfeld had sought a sentence of probation and/or community service, while prosecutors sought a sentence of between 33 and 41 months, within federal sentencing guidelines. Cole said a downward departure from the guidelines was warranted.

 

Sittenfeld is expected to appeal his conviction to the 6th Circuit, which is based in Cincinnati.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/10/10/former-councilman-p-g-sittenfeld-sentenced.html

 

Prosecutors allege P.G. Sittenfeld sought payment for ballet in FC Cincinnati stadium deal

 

As they debated what kind of sentence P.G. Sittenfeld should get after being convicted of public corruption, federal prosecutors alleged that the former Cincinnati councilman attempted to get FC Cincinnati to give $11 million to the Cincinnati Ballet in exchange for his vote on the team's stadium project.

 

One of Sittenfeld’s attorneys, Charles M. Rittgers, denied the allegation and said the former councilman’s pushback on the new build went against “some of the wealthiest, most-powerful people in the city of Cincinnati.”

 

In a statement, the ballet said it “never asked P.G. Sittenfeld to negotiate any financial matters on its behalf with any party.”

 

FC Cincinnati could not be reached for comment.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/10/10/fc-cincinnati-ballet-sittenfeld-allegations.html

 

City of Cincinnati asks P.G. Sittenfeld to return his salary

 

The city of Cincinnati has asked P.G. Sittenfeld, the former councilman convicted of bribery and extortion and sentenced to 16 months in prison on Oct. 10, to return his salary and the cost of his fringe benefits while he was suspended from office awaiting trial.

 

In a letter dated Oct. 11, the city’s finance director, Karen Alder, asks that Sittenfeld return $82,783.15 for the time he served under suspension from Dec. 7, 2020 to Jan. 4, 2022.

 

Under state law, Sittenfeld agreed to a suspension from office in December 2020 pending the outcome of his trial. While not allowed to work or cast votes, he was paid during that time, and, if he had not been convicted, would not have owed anything. During his suspension, Hamilton County Probate Judge Ralph “Ted” Winkler replaced Sittenfeld with Councilwoman Liz Keating, a Republican and Charter Committee member who was elected to a full term in her own right in 2021.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/10/11/cincinnati-sittenfeld-salary.html

What Cincinnati business leaders wrote as they urged leniency for P.G. Sittenfeld

 

Many Cincinnati business leaders wrote letters to U.S. District Judge Douglas Cole in the months prior to his sentencing of former Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld.

 

Cole asked Sittenfeld’s attorneys to release the letters after they redacted personal information. Judges often consider letters from the defendant, his or her family and the public when making sentencing decisions. Cole said the nearly 200 letters spanning 334 pages were the most he has received in a case. The judge said he would consider Sittenfeld’s community work when passing sentence.

 

Cole sentenced Sittenfeld to 16 months in prison on Oct. 10. Sittenfeld was convicted of attempted extortion and bribery in July 2022 in connection with attempts to redevelop the former Convention Place Mall at 435 Elm St.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/10/16/cincinnati-business-leaders-sittenfeld-letters.html

 

Former councilman P.G. Sittenfeld asks for more time before reporting to prison

 

P.G. Sittenfeld, the former Cincinnati councilman convicted of bribery and extortion, has asked for a one-month delay to the start of his 16-month prison sentence.

 

Sittenfeld’s attorneys filed a motion Monday, Nov. 20, asking that his report date be delayed from Dec. 1 to Jan. 1 because the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has not yet ruled on his request to remain free pending his appeal. Sittenfeld’s attorneys filed the expected notice of appeal Oct. 17.

 

“Accordingly, pursuant to the agreement of the parties and this court, Mr. Sittenfeld seeks a one-month extension to allow for the Sixth Circuit to issue an opinion,” Sittenfeld’s attorney, Neal Schuett wrote.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/11/22/sittenfeld-convicted-bribery-prison-sentence-delay.html

 

He's going to canoe and horseback prison right?

Judge rules on how P.G. Sittenfeld will forfeit money from bribery scheme

 

The judge in the P.G. Sittenfeld bribery and extortion case has ordered the former Cincinnati councilman to turn over $20,000 that FBI agents paid to a federal political action committee Sittenfeld controlled.

 

The ruling clears up some confusion over how Sittenfeld would pay the $20,000 that federal prosecutors want him to forfeit and that he owes after his July 2022 conviction.

 

Originally, U.S. District Judge Douglas Cole entered a “personal money judgment” forfeiture order. But both prosecutors and Sittenfeld’s attorneys have agreed that the money should come from Sittenfeld’s Progress and Growth PAC, which he formed years ago. Sittenfeld already has cut a check to the U.S. Marshals service for the money.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/11/27/pg-sittenfeld-forfeiture-order-pay-back-bribes.html

U.S. District Judge Douglas Cole allows P.G. Sittenfeld to delay reporting to prison

 

The judge in the P.G. Sittenfeld corruption case decided to allow the convicted former Cincinnati councilman to delay reporting to federal prison until next year.

 

But in a brief ruling on Wednesday, Nov. 29, U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Cole indicated it likely would be the final extension.

 

“As the government does not oppose the motion, the court grants it,” Cole wrote. “The court notes, though, that absent exceptional circumstances, the court is not inclined to grant any further extensions. Mr. Sittenfeld must surrender to the designated BOP (Bureau of Prisons) facility on 1/2/24.”

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/11/30/judge-sittenfeld-prison-report-date.html

Sixth Circuit judges: Sittenfeld won’t be free on appeal

 

P.G. Sittenfeld will not be free while he appeals his public corruption conviction to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a three-judge panel has ruled.

 

The former Cincinnati councilman had asked the court to allow him to stay out of federal prison while he pursued his appeal, but the court ruled in a four-page decision that his appeal does not raise a substantial question of law or fact likely to result in reversal of his conviction or a new trial.

 

“Our role is not to ‘independently weigh the evidence’ and consider whether the jury reasonably could have taken a different view of it, but rather to determine ‘whether a rational trier of fact could return a guilty verdict,’” the court wrote, citing a 2018 Sixth Circuit case, U.S. v. Paulus.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/12/01/judges-sittenfeld-won-t-be-free-on-appeal.html

Sentencing date set for former Cincinnati councilman Jeff Pastor

 

Jeff Pastor, the former Cincinnati councilman who has pleaded guilty to a single public corruption charge, will be sentenced Dec. 21 in federal court.

 

Pastor, who pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud in June, had been scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 15, but asked for a two-month delay because he “requires sufficient time to prepare for sentencing,” according to an Oct. 16 filing by his attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Karen Savir.

 

The former councilman needs time to review the pre-sentence investigative report of him, collect letters attesting to his character and allow people to make travel plans to attend the hearing, Savir wrote.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/12/07/jeff-pastor-corruption-case-sentencing-date.html

Federal prosecutors, defense propose different sentences for Former Cincinnati Councilman Jeff Pastor

 

Federal prosecutors believe Jeff Pastor, the former Cincinnati councilman who pleaded guilty to a corruption charge earlier this year, should go to prison for two years, while his defense attorney argued for a sentence half that long.

 

Both sides filed their sentencing recommendations on Dec. 14, a week before U.S. District Judge Matthew McFarland will make the decision.

 

Pastor pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud in June. In November 2020, Pastor and an associate, Tyran Marshall, were indicted on 10 felony counts, with prosecutors saying they took $55,000 in bribes from two undercover FBI agents posing as real estate developers. The payments were washed through a nonprofit Marshall set up. Marshall pleaded guilty Dec. 5.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/12/15/jeff-pastor-sentence-prosecutor-defense.html

 

P.G. Sittenfeld's lawyers ask Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for new trial

 

The government’s “sting” against P.G. Sittenfeld, and his subsequent conviction in a public corruption trial, signal a nightmarish misapplication of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Sittenfeld’s lawyers argued in a Dec. 11 brief filed with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

 

The 59-page brief cautioned that allowing the lower court’s jury verdict against Sittenfeld to stand would effectively permit prosecutors to “conjure a bribery charge against every politician” who receives a political donation, ushering in a “First Amendment Ice Age.”

 

Sittenfeld was found guilty June 8, 2022, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on one count each of bribery and attempted extortion. He was found not guilty of four other charges and has maintained his innocence. 

 

The charges concerned $20,000 in alleged bribes FBI agents, posing as developers, paid Sittenfeld to push a downtown real estate project, the former Convention Place Mall at 435 Elm St.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/12/18/pg-sittenfeld-bribery-appeal-new-trial.html

P.G. Sittenfeld appeal backed by former U.S. attorneys general, White House counsels

 

Three former U.S. attorneys general and three former White House counsels are among dozens of high-profile individuals to file amicus briefs arguing ex-Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld’s convictions should be overturned.

 

The broad and bipartisan coalition – with strange bedfellows galore, from President Barack Obama’s White House counsel to President Donald Trump’s attorney general – filed six briefs Dec. 19 in Sittenfeld’s case before the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

 

The amici include Carter Stewart, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio from 2009 to 2016, as well as 15 other former federal corruption prosecutors. They also include former Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste; former Ohio Attorney General and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher; former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown; and two former Cincinnati mayors, Willis Gradison and Mark Mallory.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/12/19/pg-sittenfeld-amicus-briefs-attorney-general.html

 

Gosh, talk about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Ex-Cincinnati Councilman Jeff Pastor sentenced to 24 months for 'scheme of greed'

 

Jeff Pastor, the former Cincinnati City Council member whose 2020 arrest on public corruption charges rocked City Hall, will spend two years in prison after accepting bribes in exchange for votes on development deals.

 

U.S. District Judge Matthew McFarland delivered Pastor’s sentence in a hearing Dec. 21. It’s the maximum possible sentence he could have imposed under the terms of a plea deal to which Pastor agreed earlier this year.

 

McFarland ordered Pastor, 39, to report by Jan. 22, 2024. He will recommend Ashland Correctional Institute to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon Pastor’s request.

 

Pastor will face three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/12/21/jeff-pastor-prison-sentence-bribery-corruption.html

 

Sounds like Canoe Jail for Pastor. Will they both wind up in the same Canoe Jail in Ashland due to geography?

P.G. Sittenfeld reports to prison – how long could he serve?

 

P.G. Sittenfeld, the former Cincinnati councilman convicted of corruption charges in 2022, reported to the Federal Correctional Institute in Ashland, Ky., on Jan. 2 to begin a 16-month sentence.

 

The minimum security facility houses 1,116 inmates in the main prison, with another 167 in an adjacent prison camp.

 

The 36-building complex is 138 miles from Sittenfeld’s home in Walnut Hills, about a 2 hour and 30 minute drive, according to Google Maps. It includes a series of brick buildings surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. Outdoor recreation options include a baseball diamond, soccer field, basketball courts and tennis courts.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/01/03/pg-sittenfeld-convicted-reports-to-prison-ashland.html

Jeff Pastor, convicted former Cincinnati councilman, gets prison report date

 

A federal judge has decided when Jeff Pastor, the former Cincinnati councilman who pleaded guilty to a corruption charge last year, must report to federal prison.

 

U.S. District Judge Matthew McFarland ordered Pastor to report to the Federal Correctional Institute in Ashland, Ky., Feb. 16. Pastor must report by 2 p.m. that day, according to McFarland’s order.

 

That means Pastor will serve his two-year sentence in the same facility as his former colleague, P.G. Sittenfeld.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/01/26/former-councilman-jeff-pastor-to-report-prison-feb.html

 

Federal prosecutors oppose P.G. Sittenfeld's bid for oral arguments in corruption appeal

 

Federal prosecutors say there is no need to hold oral arguments before the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on P.G. Sittenfeld’s bid to have his public corruption conviction overturned.

 

Sittenfeld has sought oral arguments, with the hope that the case could be decided in his favor in time to spring him from the federal prison in Ashland, Ky., before his 16-month sentence is completed. The Sixth Circuit is based in Cincinnati.

 

“The facts and legal arguments of the parties are adequately presented in the briefs and the record,” assistant U.S. attorneys Matthew Singer, Alexis Zouhary, Emily Glatfelter and Megan Gaffney Painter wrote in the government’s filing. “Oral argument is therefore unnecessary.”

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/02/14/federal-prosecutors-weigh-in-pg-sittenfeld-appeal.html

Jeff Pastor, convicted former Cincinnati councilman, reports to Ashland federal prison

 

Jeff Pastor, the former Cincinnati councilman who pleaded guilty to a corruption charge last year, reported to federal prison Friday, Feb. 16, to begin his two-year sentence.

 

U.S. District Judge Matthew McFarland ordered Pastor to report to the Federal Correctional Institute in Ashland, Ky. That means Pastor is serving his two-year sentence in the same facility as his former colleague, P.G. Sittenfeld.

 

The Federal Bureau of Prisons' website lists Pastor as an inmate at FCI Ashland with an unknown release date.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/02/20/former-councilman-jeff-pastor-to-report-prison-feb.html

 

Appeals court will hold oral arguments in P.G. Sittenfeld appeal

 

A federal appellate court will hold oral arguments in P.G. Sittenfeld’s appeal of his public corruption case, but the date is two months later than he and his attorneys had requested.

 

Sittenfeld sought oral arguments this month before the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. But the court declined to hear the case until May 9 at 9 a.m. Each side will get 15 minutes.

 

The three-judge panel that will hear the case will not be announced until two weeks prior, according to the March 15 filing.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/03/29/pg-sittenfeld-appeal-oral-arguments.html

 

Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judges grill attorneys in Sittenfeld appeal

 

The three judges hearing P.G. Sittenfeld’s appeal of his public corruption conviction asked pointed questions of federal prosecutors and the defense in oral arguments Thursday with particular focus on one statement the former Cincinnati councilmember said on an FBI recording.

 

Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judges John Bush, John Nalbandian and Eric Murphy spent a good chunk of the May 9 hearing, which lasted just over 30 minutes, discussing the implications of Sittenfeld’s recorded statement to developer Chinedum Ndukwe on Oct. 30, 2018. It came as the councilman pressed the developer for a campaign contribution for his upcoming mayoral campaign.

 

"You don't want me ... to be like, 'Hey Chin, like, love you, but can't,’" Sittenfeld told Ndukwe in reference to helping the developer.

 

At trial, Sittenfeld told the jury he was simply trying to convey he wouldn’t be able to help Ndukwe if he was not elected mayor. Prosecutors told jurors it was a threat and a key element in their bid to prove that Sittenfeld was seeking to trade his actions as a council member for campaign contributions from Ndukwe and undercover FBI agents posing as developers.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/05/09/council-pg-sittenfeld-judges-appeal-oral-arguments.html

P.G. Sittenfeld's attorney asks that former Cincinnati councilman be released pending appeal – again

 

At the end of oral arguments May 9 before the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in P.G. Sittenfeld's public corruption case, the former councilman's attorney, Yaakov Roth, asked the three-judge panel let him out of prison pending appeal.

 

“P.G. has already started his sentence. I hope I have convinced you the conviction is wrongful,” Roth said. “If I have convinced you, I would ask the court to either consider an order in advance of opinion or granting release pending appeal. It’s a short sentence and he’s already served over a quarter of it.”

 

It’s a request Sittenfeld’s attorneys have made before, to no avail. The trial court judge, U.S. District Judge Douglas Cole, denied the request, as did a previous but different three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/05/10/pg-sittenfeld-attorney-prison-release-appeal.html

 

HE'S FREE!!!

 

6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals frees former Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld

 

The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals freed P.G. Sittenfeld, the former Cincinnati councilman who has been imprisoned after being convicted in 2022 of two public corruption charges, as a three-judge panel considers his appeal.

 

The decision is a major victory for Sittenfeld, who has been serving a 16-month sentence since January. The court heard his appeal May 9, and his attorneys asked he be released while the judges deliberated.

 

"After reviewing the briefs and hearing oral argument, we are persuaded that the standard for release pending appeal is met, though we express no opinion on the ultimate outcome of Sittenfeld’s appeal," the judges wrote in an order filed on Wednesday, May 15.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/05/15/sittenfeld-freed-by-us-court-of-appeals.html

 

Former Cincinnati councilman Jeff Pastor released from federal prison

 

Jeff Pastor, the last Cincinnati councilman to serve prison time stemming from the 2020 indictments of three members, has been released to a halfway house in the region.

 

Pastor left the Ashland Federal Correctional Institution Dec. 10 after serving less than a year of his two-year prison sentence. Pastor entered the facility Feb. 16.

 

Pastor is set to be released from overall federal custody July 16, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/12/10/council-pastor-released-federal-prison-wire-fraud.html

Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rules on P.G. Sittenfeld appeal

 

Former Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld has lost the appeal of his public corruption case before the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a ruling issued Feb. 11.

 

In a 2-1 ruling, the court ruled that Sittenfeld's conviction will stand. He was released from prison mid-sentence as the appeal wound its way through the court.

 

In his appeal, Sittenfeld’s lawyers have asked for a new trial, arguing the evidence against him never showed that he agreed to a quid pro quo and allowing the conviction to stand would allow federal prosecutors to “conjure a bribery charge against every politician” who solicits a campaign contribution.

 

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/02/11/6th-circuit-court-of-appeals-sittenfeld-appeal.html

6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decides whether P.G. Sittenfeld can stay out of prison for now

 

A federal appeals court has ruled P.G. Sittenfeld, the former Cincinnati councilman convicted of public corruption charges stemming from a downtown development proposal, can stay out of prison while he appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

The same three judge panel – John Nalbandian, Eric Murphy and John Bush – that voted 2-1 to uphold Sittenfeld’s conviction said he could stay out prison “for the reasons we described in our original order granting release pending appeal.”

 

In May, the judges decided the grounds under which Sittenfeld is appealing raised a substantial legal question that could result in a reversal or a new trial. In order for someone to be released, the appeal has to present “a close question or one that could go either way.” Sittenfeld had served slightly more than four months of a 16-month sentence in the Federal Correctional Institute at Ashland.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/02/28/court-rules-sittenfeld-prison-appeal-supreme-court.html

Report: President Trump pardons P.G. Sittenfeld

Former Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld has received a pardon from President Donald Trump, according to a report published by CNN.

CNN, citing the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio, reported May 28 that Sittenfeld was among a string of individuals pardoned by Trump, many of whom had been convicted of crimes that range from public corruption to guns to maritime-related offenses. Sittenfeld was convicted in 2022 of two counts of bribery and attempted extortion. The jury found him not guilty of four other charges.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio has not responded to a request for comment as of this posting.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/05/29/report-president-trump-pardons-p-g-sittenfeld.html

I wonder how much money Sittenfeld's family "donated" to Trump for the pardon