IN: Dogfighting ex-convict indicted on tax evasion

Dogfighting ex-convict indicted on tax evasion
Rebecca S. Green | The Journal Gazette

FORT WAYNE – A federal grand jury indicted a Fort Wayne man with a history of dogfighting and association with drug dealing, accusing him of tax violations and fraud.

The six-count indictment handed down Wednesday accuses Jovon C. Harvey of two counts of attempted tax evasion, three counts of failure to file tax information and a single count of fraud. He is also known as Javon C. Harvey.

Harvey, whose age and address were not available Friday, is accused of attempting to evade his tax obligations for his 2007 income by giving cash to other people who then paid construction and other expenses for him, according to court documents.

Harvey also failed to file a tax return in April 2008 for his 2007 income, according to court documents.

In the single fraud count, Harvey is accused of defrauding Fairmont Funding LLC and Sovereign Bank between Sept. 5 and Sept. 22, 2008.

Prosecutors allege that Harvey concocted a scheme in which he aided Lee Cline, who has not been indicted, in obtaining a mortgage for a piece of property in the 5700 block of Thompson Road using false information in loan documents.

The false information included his income, assets and liabilities, according to court documents.

The resulting loss to the bank was $407,669, according to court documents.

Allen County property records show the property in question was owned by “Cline and Harvey LLC” in June 2006, by “Hardy, Jovon C. & Cline” in 2010, by Jovon C. Harvey in 2011, then sold in 2012 to another individual.

When Cline & Harvey LLC bought the home in 2006, it sold for $45,000. According to property tax records, in 2011, the property sold for $405,000 and then for $640,000 in 2012. The 8,119-square-foot home has five bathrooms and a swimming pool.

In July 1999, Harvey was sentenced to six months in jail and six months on probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit an animal fighting contest and five other felonies.

He was accused of running a dogfighting ring out of a property in Monroeville and was charged in April 1998. Authorities confiscated 46 dogs from the property.

In 2001, a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine filed against Harvey was dismissed after one of the witnesses against him, former Fort Wayne police officer Gentry Mosley, was charged with murder. He had been accused, along with Mosley and others, of running cocaine from Texas to Fort Wayne in the late 1990s.

Fired from the police department and eventually acquitted of murder, Mosley was given a 10-year suspended prison sentence in 2000 for drug conspiracy in exchange for his cooperation in the case.

Harvey pleaded guilty to bribing two investigators with the Allen County prosecutor’s office in connection with the drug conspiracy case. He was given a suspended six-year sentence.

Harvey bought McKinnie Tap, 626 McKinnie Ave., along with his mother in December 2003.

Indiana business entity records reveal the business was officially owned by “Cline and Harvey LLC” and was dissolved in July 2008, according to Indiana secretary of state records.

Dogfighting ex-convict indicted on tax evasion | The Journal Gazette