Gregory A. White, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced today that a criminal information was filed against Dr. Ramini Sri Pilla, age 41, of 2741 Hampshire Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, charging her with making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the federal government in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001.

According to the Information, Dr. Pilla, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at Case Reserve University (“CWRU”) perpetrated a hoax against the University by falsely reporting to the FBI that she had been the victim of threatening hate mail and that she suspected three of her colleagues of delivering the letters to her. She told the FBI that between December 19, 2006 and February 28, 2007, she received four such letters, and that her colleagues were motivated to send them to her because of her ethnic origin and her gender. She told the FBI she believed the senders of the hate mail were angry at her for (1) making a complaint to a CWRU hotline alleging discrimination and (2) filing a compliant with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against CWRU alleging discrimination. In addition, she filed a complaint in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on or about January 25, 2007 seeking a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief and alleging that CWRU had not “taken every reasonable action necessary to protect her life, health, and safety” in response to the threatening letters she claimed to have received.

As a result of Dr. Pilla’s false accusations, CWRU and the FBI conducted an investigation. The cost of the investigation, along with CWRU’s administrative costs in responding to the false reports, totaled approximately $86,000. If convicted, the Defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines which depend upon a number of factors unique to each case, including the Defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, her role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum of five years and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ann C. Rowland following investigation by the FBI and the CWRU Police Department.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.