CINCINNATI – A federal grand jury has charged a Cincinnati police officer with failing to report tens of thousands of dollars earned from off-duty jobs at area nightclubs.
Diondre Winstead, 44, of Cincinnati, is charged with three counts of filing false tax returns. He allegedly failed to report more than $58,000 earned from off-duty jobs in tax years 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Winstead was first charged by a federal criminal complaint and arrested on that complaint on August 18.
According to court documents, Winstead is charged as part of an investigation into alleged narcotics money laundering organizations operating as Cincinnati nightclubs. Promoters allegedly use drug proceeds to pay for artists and performers at the nightclubs as a way to generate revenue that would appear to be legitimate.
Winstead, a Cincinnati Police Officer of more than 16 years, worked off-duty jobs at the clubs and received cash payments from the promoters.
Vipal J. Patel, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Bryant Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation; and Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot K. Isaac announced the charges. Assistant United States Attorney Kenneth L. Parker is representing the United States in this case.
Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies with the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) are assisting with investigating this case.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
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