CINCINNATI — The former superintendent of Dohn Community High School and a contractor for the school have both been charged in a federal fraud scheme, according to a federal indictment.
Leando Ramone Davenport, the school's former superintendent, and Jonathan Larry Ballew, founder of multiple companies that provided services to the school, are both charged with eight counts in the alleged scheme.
Here are charges from the indictment:
- Counts 1 to 4 — wire fraud
- Counts 5 to 6 — engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity
- Count 7 (Ballew only) — engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity
- Count 8 (Davenport only) — engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity
The charges come after they "knowingly devised and intended to devise a continuing scheme and artifice to defraud Dohn of money and property through materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises," according to the indictment.
The WCPO 9 I-Team has previously explored business relationships between Davenport and Ballew. A former Dohn teacher told us in 2025 that he’d been wondering about their business ties since October 2023, when he attended a Dohn board meeting to ask for higher teacher salaries and better facilities to educate students.
WATCH: Looking at private investments connected to Dohn's superintendent, contractor
According to the indictment, Davenport and Ballew used Davenport's role as superintendent and operator of Dohn through Cincinnati Charter School Collaborative LLC (CCSC), a Davenport-controlled for-profit entity, to benefit both himself and Ballew.
The duo did so by Davenport authorizing payments from Dohn to Ballew's four companies, Core, CSS, Progressive and Elite, based on fraudulent invoices submitted by Ballew, who then kicked back proceeds of the payments from Dohn to Davenport.
After Ballew would submit fake invoices to Dohn for work that wasn't performed or was grossly inflated for actual services performed, Davenport would authorize payments from Dohn to Ballew's companies. Ballew would then receive the payments and secretly send some of the proceeds to other entities and companies controlled by Davenport, including CCSC, AD Staffing and others.
The indictment also alleges that Davenport instructed other Dohn employees to prioritize payments from Dohn to entities controlled by Ballew.
Davenport also allegedly overstated the number of full-time students enrolled at Dohn to increase the school's revenue to further the scheme.
According to the indictment, in total, Davenport authorized Dohn to pay more than $8 million to Ballew-controlled entities, and then Ballew kicked back more than $4 million to Davenport's entities.
If convicted of the fraud scheme, Davenport and Ballew must forfeit the amount of money that each received in the scheme.
