Men accused of diverting millions from students to help pay for their luxury cars and rental homes

PHOENIX (KPHO/Gray News) — Two men allegedly used millions of dollars meant for students to buy luxury items, including a $30,000-a-month rental in Miami.

According to federal prosecutors, Jonathan Larry Ballew, 62, of Phoenix, and Leondo Ramone Davenport, 50, of Cincinnati, were arrested Thursday by federal agents.

A federal grand jury indicted the pair on charges including wire fraud and money laundering.

“We’re putting an end to fraudsters exploiting public trust and profiting off of the American taxpayer,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Dominick S. Gerace II said.

Davenport served as superintendent of Dohn Community High School in Cincinnati from 2015 to 2019. He later ran the school through a limited liability company from 2019 until 2024.

Dohn High was a community school, which, under Ohio law, is a public school that operates independently of a local school district.

Prosecutors say that Ballew set up at least four companies that claimed to provide educational services, staffing, technology and construction work to the school.

Between 2021 and 2024, Ballew allegedly sent Dohn High fake invoices through those companies, with Davenport allegedly approving payment of those invoices and then receiving kickbacks from Ballew in return.

In total, investigators said Davenport authorized more than $8 million in payments to Ballew’s companies, and Ballew paid more than $4 million of that money back to Davenport.

Prosecutors said the two men used the money to pay for luxury cars and rental homes.

In one example, court documents say Davenport and Ballew signed a two-year lease in October 2023 for a vacation property near Miami that cost $30,000 a month.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, who leads the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, said the scheme took money meant for students.

“Education dollars exist to support the learning and development of American children — not to fund the lifestyles of unscrupulous school officials,” McDonald said.

Both men face a wire fraud charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and a charge of engaging in monetary transactions with money obtained illegally, which carries up to 10 years.