EAST CLEVELAND, OH – It is obvious in reading the 69-page federal indictment of Michael Smedley, 56, Zubair Mehmet Abdur Razzaq Al Zubair, 41, and his brother Muzzammil Muhammad Al Zubair, 30, that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents had an intimate level of knowledge about the organized criminals. Evidence includes numerous text messages, email, wire transfers of funds, receipts, letters, contracts, expensive Cleveland Browns loge and game tickets, Euclid police investigatory records, IRS records and what appears to be detailed conversations with cooperating witnesses.
$10 million was on the table. The words in the 69-page indictment describe Smedley and the Al Zubair brothers acts in detail. It is obvious that investors entering city hall to interact with elected and appointed public officials did not know they were meeting with members of an organized crime gang impersonating elected and appointed officials.
The detailed electronic paper trail Mayor Brandon King’s unbudgeted “Chief of Staff,” Smedley, and the Al Zubair brothers created between January 2021 and January 2023 is prolific. They were not fooled by the two brothers as lying attorneys trying to protect Smedley and King are claiming. FBI special agents collected evidence that confirms Smedley, King and even attorney Willa Mae Hemmons were reckless, knowing and willing thieves and accomplices. The indictment makes it clear they intentionally concealed their illegal acts from the city council and taxpayers by failing to discharge numerous public duties they were administered oaths of office to perform.
The quartet of elected, appointed and royalty-pretending con men seemed unconcerned that text messages and email were traceable, stored and retrievable from internet servers with a simple subpoena. They texted and emailed the details and reasons for their deals, and exchanged money and gifts with no regard for the electronic paper trail of statutorily reportable transactions they were creating. Imagine FBI agents obtaining an August 13, 2022 text from Smedley to Zubair Al Zubair expressing his gratitude for an expensive and unreported gift.
“Thank you for the car, I appreciate you bro,” Smedley texted.
Smedley has retained the same attorney King is using to defend his 17-count state bribery indictment, Charles Tyler. Tyler received over $54,000 in unbudgeted public funds to represent King and members of his family at a hearing before the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections that challenged their voter registrations. City council never approved payments to Tyler to represent King’s fight against a recall or private citizens Nathaniel Martin and Mark McClain. The former Summit County assistant prosecutor received the money unlawfully.
It’s a stupid defense for Hemmons, Tyler and attorney Heather McCollough to claim Smedley didn’t know the two brothers he was asking for and receiving money and gifts from, as he sold his appointed public office, weren’t rich members of the Saudi royal family. It makes no difference if they were Saudi royalty or two home boys from Cleveland. The FBI has evidence that Smedley and King accepted their gifts for political favors and took the Al Zubair brothers money anyway.
More specifically, Hemmons worked with the Al Zubair brothers’ father, Sulaiman Muhammad, during my administration as the city’s mayor from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2009. He was a recreation worker assigned to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center and she knows it.
Smedley identified the Al Zubair brothers as Muhammad’s sons when King was gifted use of One University Center’s penthouse lounge for an unreported campaign fundraiser Hemmons attended. Smedley paid the set-up workers and told them one of the Al Zubair brothers was a One University Center tenant.
Tyler’s representation of King and Smedley gives King access to the FBI’s evidence against Smedley that involves him, Hemmons and others. Pursuant to Disciplinary Rule 1.7 of Ohio’s Rules of Professional Responsibility for Attorneys, Tyler could have a conflict of interest if the two indicted men become witnesses against each other. City hall witnesses have heard and observed Hemmons exhibiting the same Disciplinary Rule 1.7 violating conflict in ongoing conversations she’s having with King and Tyler from her office after King’s Supreme Court of Ohio suspension. Hemmons, an unbudgeted thief on the city’s payroll, appointed herself interim mayor as a private citizen in order to keep King’s organized crime gang intact and protect his interests.
The indictment identifies in detail the long con the Al Zubair brothers, Smedley, King and Hemmons played on a $9 million Chinese investor and a $1 million United Arab Emirates (UAE) citizen investor with Smedley, King and Hemmons’ help. The complicit support of the three city officials was key in convincing the investors that an ex-city worker’s sons were Saudi royalty and had control of the former General Electric lighting division headquarters at Nela Park in East Cleveland.
The undisclosed Chinese and UAE investors believed they were investing to build a cryptocurrency mining operation at Nela Park. It’s a business China banned for creating instability in its energy grid.
The $10 million Nela Park scheme had several elaborate parts that Smedley and King connected by giving the Al Zubair’s fake titles and business cards declaring them to be the “International Economic Advisor” to the mayor to legitimize them. Once the brothers were given fake titles, badges and city hall access, the FBI documented their creative use of the city’s name in their foreign affairs.
They used the fake “credentials” to try and expedite visa applications for foreign associates. They wrote to one potential investor of the power they had to offer foreign investors residences and land through the city and county’s property-laundering landbanks. They bragged of being advisors to King and Governor Richard Michael Dewine.
The indicted mayor and his chief of staff’s involvement was critical in selling the Al Zubair’s con to the foreign investors. The indictment reveals how King and Smedley did not care the city’s name and reputation was being used in a manner that discredited the entire municipal government. Text messages show Smedley was even asked to help the Zubair brothers identify locations to store cryptocurrency mining computers they bought and sold to a Canadian buyer. His direct involvement in their operation was directorial and deep. Smedley was calling the inside city hall shots.
The indictment is like reading a script from “America’s Dumbest Criminals.” Neither side reported their payments and earnings to the Internal Revenue Service. Smedley wasn’t paying taxes on the extra money and reporting their gifts to him. They were pigs feeding at the public and Al Zubair brothers troughs.
King did not report the expensive Cleveland Browns’ tickets and other gifts the Al Zubair brothers gave Smedley to give him to the Ohio Ethics Commission in 2021, 2022, 2023 or 2024. He didn’t report the gift of the One University Center’s lounge for his 2021 fundraiser either on his campaign finance reports or Ohio Ethics Commission forms.
King and his finance committee treasurer, Nadia Lovelace, did not also report the donations he received from the fundraiser to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. In fact, King and Lovelace haven’t submitted any campaign finance reports to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in violation of Section 3517.10 of the Ohio Revised Code; a first degree misdemeanor for each violation.
Smedley appears to have initially started off asking the Al Zubair brothers for $3000 payments after he was wooed by the two brothers with food, cigars and Cleveland Brown’s tickets in exchange for their preferred access to the mayor, his staff and city hall. The payment demands increased to $5000, $10,000 and $20,000 as the relationship grew. FBI agents identified two checks Smedley did not cash. One for $20,000. He openly asked for expensive Japanese wagyu steaks.
The indictment doesn’t reveal if Smedley was giving King a cut of his bribe payments from the Al Zubair brothers though the indicted mayor’s involvement is evident. As East Cleveland’s “chief law enforcement officer,” it is King instead of the FBI who should have assigned investigators to investigate Smedley and the Al Zubair brothers if he wasn’t in on the crimes. At the very least King was compelled by Title 18, United States Code, Section 4, “Misprision of felony,” to report Smedley and the Al Zubair brothers felony crimes to either a civilian or military authority.
FBI special agents detailed a series of email and text messages between the Al Zubair brothers, Smedley and the foreign investors that led to an August 11, 2021 “signing ceremony” in “the mayor’s office.” It was the contract signing event in King’s office that caused the Chinese investor to release $3 million to the Al Zubair brothers and the ultimate initiation of a criminal investigation by Euclid police.
It is clear in the federal indictment that the Chinese investor was doing their best to investigate some of the lies they were being supplied by the Al Zubair brothers, Smedley and King’s office. One of murky facts was the status of Nela Park. Did the brothers own or have site control over the property? The investors also wanted to know if the Al Zubair brothers were able to make “power source” guarantees. The language of the contract the foreign investor signed with the Al Zubair brothers, that King, Smedley, Hemmons, Heather McCollough and other city officials witnessed, explained how they did.
Specifically, the contract signed in King’s office on August 11, 2021 read that Dubai Bridge International “possess the rights to lease, rent, borrow and handover occupancy of Nela Park including but not limited to equipment and power sources including general property assets or any developer or tenant of any capacity.” That specific contract language was a lie and King, Smedley and Hemmons knew it.
GE Lighting had sold its Nela Park lighting business to Savant Systems, Inc. in July 2020. Savant sold a portion of the property to Phoenix Investments in March 2022. None of the texts and email between Smedley, King or the Al Zubair brothers show any of them reaching out to Savant officials to discuss a space and energy lease.
Hemmons calls herself a vendor, but city council for the past two years has not appropriated funds to pay a law director, deputy law director or any of the outside attorneys King and Hemmons hired without council’s knowledge or approval. The only two-year contract council approved for Hemmons on December 27, 2014 expired on January 4, 2017. Since 2017 numerous official records show Hemmons functioning as King’s personal attorney. To the council majority she’s a thief obstructing the city’s official business to help King commit crimes and shield him from accountability.
The August 11, 2021 contract signing in King’s office created the catalyst the Al Zubair brothers needed to convince the Chinese victim to fork over $3 million. Zubair Al Zubair asked for $1 million on August 25, 2021 and another $2 million on September 29, 2021. The agreement the Al Zubair brothers signed in King’s office authorized them to receive three $1 million payments for each set of 48 cryptocurrency mining computers they installed and turned on. The victim complained that the brothers hadn’t achieved any of the goals but gave them the millions anyway.
Instead of delivering the $3 million in cryptocurrency mining computers to Nela Park, the Chinese victim was told they had to be stored in containers in Euclid, Ohio because of mercury contamination at Nela Park. From Euclid the computers were sold to a buyer in Canada. Euclid police were asked to investigate the Chinese investor’s stolen property.
The indictment reveals that Euclid police reached out to East Cleveland police who told Smedley. King’s “chief of staff” told the Al Zubair brothers the computers they’d sold were being investigated as stolen. Smedley’s tipoff was designed to obstruct Euclid’s criminal investigation. The inside information he was able to provide the Al Zubair brothers also increased his value.
By October 11, 2021 the Al Zubair brothers were starting to receive millions from the foreign investors and Smedley wanted a bigger cut. He sent Zubair Al Zubair a more detailed demand for money in exchange for his manipulating East Cleveland city hall workers, council and outside governmental authorities with King. There is no legislative record of Smedley discussing his and King’s Al Zubair brothers dealings with the city council in a public meeting.
Smedley wanted the Al Zubair brothers to pay him $250,000 over the $110,000 he wrote that King was paying him as chief of staff. That’s $360,000 a year on top of the other money he’s been alleged to have received from individuals doing or wanting to do business with and in the city. If Smedley was being paid $110,000 by King, that wage rate was not approved or appropriated by council.
Smedley’s been accused of being a “bag man” since he was appointed by recalled and convicted ex-Mayor Gary A. Norton, Jr. in 2010. The Noble Road dump and the illegal agreement with Cleveland Clinic to close Huron Hospital in exchange for $8 million was a Smedley idea. Smedley and Norton deposited the $8 million in a bank account they created and hid every transaction from council. The council Dr. Joy Jordan presided over as president never agreed to the deal Norton signed with ex-Cleveland Clinic CEO Delos Cosgrove.
Smedley in his October 11, 2021 letter to the Al Zubair brothers wanted seven percent equity in all the deals he worked on with the Al Zubair brothers. He wanted 12 to 15 percent equity in all the deals he led. He wanted performance bonuses of $10,000, $15,000 and $20,000 when he met goals. He wanted travel expenses and a $25,000 signing bonus. The next day, October 12, 2021, Zubair Al Zubair and his brother, Muzzamil Al Zubair, described Smedley as “greedy” in a text between them.
On November 9, 2021, Smedley emailed Zubair Al Zubair an agreement asking for $10,000 a month. He offered to advise “the Zubair family and its businesses” on governmental affairs, building private sector relationships and real estate development. On November 13, 2021 he explained that the agreement was needed to cover the payments he’d already received from them.
“The reason I sent you the agreement so that I can stay out of jail representing you. I needntonbe able to prove ther is an official relationship or it an be perceived I am doing this from my public position.” [The typos and misspelled words are from Smedley.]
During the month of November 2021, the indictment details how Smedley continued to press the Al Zubair brothers for the larger and consistent monthly payments he wanted. On November 16, 2021, Zubair Al Zubair texted his brother Muzzamil that, “This nigga Mike off his rocker if he thinks its going to get signed without set standards.”
Three days later on November 19, 2021, Smedley sent the brothers a message that he had an online meeting set up with Jobs Ohio to help them find a cryptocurrency mining site. He explained how the state agency employed an IT person from China.
Smedley held an online meeting with Jobs Ohio officials on November 29, 2021, which pleased the Al Zubair brothers. Afterwards, Muzzammil Al Zubair withdrew $20,000 for Smedley. Zubair Al Zubair arranged the delivery on December 7, 2021.
By December 22, 2021, Zubair Al Zubair texted Smedley that the “defense” he offered for someone the indictment identifies as being “known to the Grand Jury” made him think they’ve never paid him a cent or “come to any form of agreement with you.”
Smedley texted back on Christmas Day December 25, 2021 that “For me it was never about money. Only to the degree if money was made …”
By April 2022 Smedley brought the late Gus Frangos into the foreground of the city’s affairs, again. One of the behind-the-scenes relationships FBI, U.S. Department of Treasury and HUD Inspector General agents have ferreted out of the quagmire of connections to Smedley and King, and are still investigating, is the one between them and a list of East Cleveland officials and James Rokakis and the late Gus Frangos’ Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Agency. The landbank Rokakis and the late Frangos created has been described as a “property laundering operation.” Rokakis no longer has the protection of his brother, Alex Rokakis, in the U.S. Attorney’s office and has retired.
Smedley wanted to meet and dine with Frangos at the expensive Marble Room restaurant and wanted the Al Zubair brothers to pay for it. He asked them to cover the expense on April 7, 2022 and let them know he was meeting with Frangos. By May 29, 2022, Smedley was texting the Al Zubair brothers for expensive Japanese wagyu steaks. The 18-year-old Macallan Scotch Whiskey Smedley and King were filmed consuming in East Cleveland’s police garage in 2023 costs $500 a bottle.
It is a July 12, 2022 letter from the Al Zubair brothers to Smedley that supports a “gentrification” email he sent to Councilwoman Dr. Patricia Blochowiak and others on November 16, 2023 that identifies a conspiracy. It explains why East Cleveland’s number of property parcels declined from 12,500 in 2009 to 6900 through demolition as of 2023. He titled it “The taking of East Cleveland. What Smedley and the Al Zubair brothers discussed in the July 12, 2022 letter was his personal desire to redevelop and develop the city’s real estate in areas his November 16, 2023 letter identified him and King as directing to be demolished.
By August 11, 2022 the Al Zubair brothers were texting each other about telling someone the grand jury knows, according to the indictment, to “manage Mike.” By August 20, 2022, King was signing a Memorandum of Understanding the city council knew nothing of with the Al Zubair brothers. King called himself authorizing Zubair Al Zubair to establish international business, service, infrastructure and financing relationships with entities in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Mayors have no international affairs authority under Ohio law.
On September 2, 2022, Smedley texted Zubair Al Zubair and asked that he be promoted to vice president of Dubai Bridge International so he could “move this stuff.” The timing of Smedley’s September 2, 2022 reference about moving “this stuff” is within the proximity of a police report the Chinese investor made to Euclid police on or around September 6, 2022. She’d invested $9 million for a cryptocurrency mining operation and purchased the computers. FBI agents detail how the computers were stored in a Euclid warehouse and sold to a Canadian buyer. Smedley called Zubair Al Zubair to tip him off to the investigation after Euclid police identified Dubai Bridge International as a suspect in the theft to East Cleveland police they thought would help them investigate. They ran into cops who were criminals.
In East Cleveland the focus is on Smedley’s involvement in the Al Zubair brothers’ schemes. Before Smedley is even mentioned in the 69-page indictment, prosecutors exposed how the born in Cleveland brothers tried to sell war munitions to foreign nationals from Romania, Indonesia and Canada. It’s a bigger story than Smedley. For East Cleveland it’s all about Smedley because it implicates King and his personal attorney, Hemmons.
If convicted Smedley will have to forfeit the possessions he purchased with his bribe money.
