HINDS COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – Cedric Cornelius pled guilty in connection to the Hinds County Election Commission (HCEC) fraud scandal.
Cornelius, a Hinds County resident, was indicted on multiple charges alongside Hinds County Election Commissioner Toni Johnson. Another woman, Sudie Jones-Teague, was also arrested in connection to the case.
Cornelius pled guilty to using his company, Apogee Group II, LLC, to work with Johnson to get paid without performing the work. The company was awarded contracts to perform cleaning services, COVID-19 testing and voting machine audits for HCEC despite being registered as a “motion picture and video production” company.
He pled guilty to multiple counts of bribery of a public official, conspiracy to make/submit fraudulent statements to the government, making/submitting false statements to defraud the government and making/submitting false writings to defraud the government.
As part of the plea agreement, he will be required to pay restitution in the amount of $170,946.00 with $50,000.00 to be paid on or before Friday, January 20, 2023.
He will be sentenced after the completion of the cases against his codefendants.
