Tigard man sentenced for sex trafficking, money laundering, fraud
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Sex trafficking, laundering the profits through a bottled water company and fraudulently receiving COVID relief funds are just a few of the “remarkable series of crimes” committed by a Tigard man over the past few years, for which he was sentenced Tuesday, officials said.
According to the Department of Justice, 42-year-old Johnell Lee Cleveland was sentenced to nine years in prison, seven years of supervised release and ordered to pay $32,115 in restitution to the Oregon Employment Department. He will also be ordered to pay a woman sex trafficking victim an amount that will be determined later, officials said.
This isn’t the first time Cleveland faced time behind bars.
In the summer of 2020, Cleveland was released early from prison from his 57-month sentence related to various crimes after seeking and being granted “compassionate release” due to health risks associated with the prisoners amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to court documents, he was originally sentenced in July 2019 for machine gun possession, money laundering and distributing fentanyl.
The early release was something Cleveland “could have used as an opportunity to chart a new path away from criminality,” said Steven T. Mygrant, Chief of the Narcotics and Criminal Enterprises Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon. “Unfortunately, he did the exact opposite, diving headfirst into a remarkable series of crimes.”
Less than 30 days after release, officials said Cleveland and another person set about defrauding an insurance company. They claimed that nine pieces of jewelry that were seized by police were actually stolen. They sought to cash in on a $100,000 insurance policy they signed up for, specifically to exploit this lie as a press release by the Department of Justice explained,
“[Cleveland’s] associate submitted a false burglary report to the Las Vegas Police Department claiming her Mercedes-Benz sedan and various personal property, including the nine pieces of insured jewelry, had been stolen. Seeking reimbursement, Cleveland quickly notified his insurance company of the purported jewelry theft.”
While the insurance fraud scheme was still unfolding, Cleveland set his sights on illegally obtaining Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. He applied for federal COVID relief dollars in October 2020 and was eventually granted the money. The five-month span listed on his application — beginning in April 2020 — included the period when he was in prison. Despite this, he was awarded the funds anyway.
In August 2020, Cleveland began a romantic relationship with a woman. However, things quickly soured when he urged her to engage in sex work in order to pay for business costs for an entrepreneurial effort he was trying to get off the ground.
“Over time, Cleveland became less friendly and more menacing toward the woman, demanding she travel frequently and engage in more commercial sex,” the DOJ release said.
Officials said Cleveland kept all the money the woman earned to himself and even threatened to punish her, such as “locking her in a dog cage.”
The proceeds from the sex work that Cleveland collected from the woman were disguised in purported business expenses for a Portland-based water bottle company, citing costs like office space rent, merchandising, manufacturing and hiring a modeling agency.
Eventually, in November 2021, Cleveland was arrested in Portland, with investigators later seizing his vehicle and a loaded handgun within, in a secret compartment.
A grand jury subsequently charged Cleveland with crimes related to various fraudulent activity — both through the guise of business and insurance claims — money laundering, sex trafficking and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He later entered guilty pleas for the charges.