Dallas developer pleads guilty to bribing council members

Date: Nov. 12, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

A Dallas real estate developer who bribed two city officials pleaded guilty today, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Sherman Roberts who previously helmed City Wide Community Development Corporation, was indicted in December 2020 and pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit bribery.

According to court documents, Mr. Sherman bribed two City Council Members, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway and City Council Member Carolyn Davis, to support loans and low income housing tax credits for his apartment projects.

In return for several thousand dollars in cash - plus the promise of future payments after her city council tenure ended - Council Member Davis lobbied for Mr. Roberts's real estate projects, including Serenity Place, Runyon Springs, and Patriot's Crossing.

She promoted Serenity Place to the City Housing Committee, demanded other developers also seeking real estate funding withdraw their applications in order to increase Mr. Roberts's chances of success, recommended Serenity Place receive a 9% low-income housing tax credit, and voted to approve a $1.9 million City of Dallas loan.

"Right now you and me are making money," Mr. Roberts texted Council Member Davis shortly after the vote.

About a month later, she repeatedly reached out to ask for more money, "just a few dollars." He agreed.

Then, she and Mr. Roberts met with Mayor Pro Tem Caraway to address a problem with his Patriot's Crossing project.

In return for several hundred dollars cash and a $2,000 monthly stipend, Mayor Pro Tem Caraway agreed to stop the city from issuing a request for proposal (RFP) for the Patriots Crossing project and to deliver the project for Mr. Roberts.

"How much is the project worth?" Mayor Pro Tem Caraway asked. "Once you're successful with this project, don't forget about me."

"I won't forget about you," Mr. Roberts responded. "That's where the money is… the money has never been an issue."

Mr. Roberts now faces up to five years in federal prison. He is slated to be sentenced on March 12, 2025.

Mayor Pro Tem Caraway pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and tax evasion and was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison. The same year, City Council Member Carolyn Davis pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery concerning an agent of a local government receiving federal benefits, but passed away in a car crash before she could be sentenced.

Mr. Roberts was one of three real estate developers charged in connection with the bribery scandal. Devin Hall, the developer behind the Grand Park Place apartment project, pleaded guilty in August 2020. Ruel Hamilton, the AmeriSouth Realty Group executive who backed the Royal Crest housing project, is awaiting retrial on conspiracy and bribery charges.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Dallas Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcus Busch is prosecuting the case with the help of Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Max.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.

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