GREENBELT, Md. — A Virginia man who was the victim of a kidnapping has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for attempting to bribe his kidnapper during trial.
U.S. District Judge George Hazel sentenced 28-year-old Jolen Michael Ghorbani, aka Jay, on Friday for the attempted bribery of a witness. The former Fairfax resident is set to receive three years of supervised release following the completion of his prison sentence.
According to his plea agreement, on Feb. 3, 2021, Ghorbani was the victim of a kidnapping, assault, and robbery committed by Tray David Sherman and his co-conspirators.
While being kidnapped, officials say Ghorbani was taken from Maryland to Washington, D.C. where Sherman and his co-conspirators assaulted and robbed Ghorbani.
Sherman was indicted and arrested on March 31, 2022 for conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
On April 15, Ghorbani was served with a subpoena requiring his testimony at Sherman's trial, which was initially scheduled to begin July 11, 2022.
Officials say starting in June, Ghorbani began to use a social media account to send a series of threatening and intimidating direct messages to Sherman. This includes a message where Ghorbani sent his phone number to Sherman and said "Call me if you want to finesse trial."
Nearly three weeks prior to the scheduled start of the trial, officials claim Ghorbani sent another series of messages to Sherman. This time Ghorbani solicited a payment of $5,000 from Sherman in exchange for Ghorbani’s agreement to testify falsely or to refuse to testify at all at Sherman’s trial.
Ghorbani shared the messages he sent to Sherman with another individual, bragging that he was “dancing with the devil,” and referring to Sherman, stating, “I’m auctioning off his freedom.”
On Jan. 20, 2023, Tray Sherman, 28, of Washington, D.C., the final member of the kidnapping conspiracy was sentenced to 126 months in prison.
Sherman and his co-conspirators pleaded guilty to luring Ghorbani from a casino in Maryland to a building in Southeast D.C., where they threatened Ghorbani’s life, took his personal items, and held him hostage at gunpoint while Sherman and another co-conspirator returned to the casino to steal items from the victim’s hotel room.
Authorities claim the other four defendants all pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy and were sentenced to between 10 and 14 years in federal prison.
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