Man Pleads Guilty To Bribing City Official, PPP Fraud

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — A 55-year-old man from Glen Arm pleaded guilty Thursday to bribing a Baltimore City official for nearly four years.

From December 2019 to August 2023, James Carroll Erny Jr. paid at least $25,000 in bribes to "delay, remove or extinguish" financial dues he owed to the City of Baltimore, according to a release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland.

Erny, who owned at least eight properties in the city, is said to have cost the city over $145,000 in unpaid citations.

Bribes were made to Joseph Gillespie, who previously served as an employee of the Baltimore City Department of Finance.

Investigators determined that payments were routinely made to Gillespie through Cash App, Zelle, and in cash envelopes that contained up to $1,000.

"Sometimes, Erny met Gillespie in a men's bathroom in the City-owned building to give him envelopes containing cash bribes," reads the release.

Erny has also admitted to taking part in an additional scheme in which he fraudulently obtained $996,240 from the Paycheck Protection Program, a COVID-19 relief program.

Authorities said Erny had also tried to receive over $100,000 from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

Erny is now facing 10 years in prison for the bribery case. His sentencing is scheduled for June 9. Gillespie was sentenced to four years in prison.