An Arizona couple has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Atlanta for conspiring to extort money from Georgia Tech by false accusations of sexual assault.
Ronald Bell and his co-conspirators were indicted on felony charges of conspiracy to transmit a threat interstate, conspiracy to extort property from another and attempted extortion.
The defendants are accused of making a false accusation of sexual assault. They demanded a large amount of money in order to withdraw the claim. False allegations designed to extort money are exposed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. People who try to perpetrate criminal schemes at the expense of law-abiding citizens will be caught and prosecuted.
Buchanan asked the judge not to release Bell on bond because there was a serious risk that he would flee or intimidate a potential witness.
Chris Meegan, a Georgia Tech security guard, was accused of sexual assault by Pastner. Bell was accused by the government of recruiting Meegan to lie about seeing Pastner assault Pendley, who later filed a lawsuit against Pastner.
According to the federal government, Bell told Meegan that he would give him a portion of the money. Bell is accused of trying to get Georgia Tech representatives to not report the allegations. According to Meegan, Bell encouraged him to make up the allegations against Pastner.
Two counts of solicitation of influencing a witness, two counts of attempted tampering with a witness, false information and facilitation of fraud, scheme and practice were all convictions against Bell.
On May 8, 2019, Pendley called the police to report that Pastner had raped her in a Houston hotel room. Ahead of the mediation in the civil lawsuit, Pendley called the police. The recordings of jailhouse conversations were included in a court filing by Pastner's lawyers.
Pastner sued Bell and Pendley in Pima County, Arizona, in January of last year, accusing them of trying to extort and blackmail him by threatening to release false allegations about him to the media.
In February of last year, Bell and Pendley filed a countersuit against Pastner, accusing him of sexual assault and harassment. Attorneys hired by Georgia Tech cleared Pastner of any wrongdoing.
They dropped their lawsuits in August of 2019.
Bell claimed that Pastner gave Georgia Tech basketball players Josh Okogie and Tadric Jackson improper benefits by paying for them to fly to his home in Tucson, Arizona, and eat at a restaurant in Atlanta. Bell said he sent the shoes and shirts to the players.
Georgia Tech's compliance department received the violations after Pastner became aware of Bell's allegations. Tech officials self- reported the violations to the NCAA, and the school declared Okogie and Jackson ineligible for competition. Okogie and Jackson were suspended by the NCAA. The players had to pay back the benefits they received.
The NCAA placed the Yellow Jackets on four years of "probation" and banned them from playing in the playoffs during the upcoming season. The committee on infraction ruled that Bell provided $2,424 to the players.
Multiple sanctions against Tech were thrown out by the NCAA.
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