PRESS RELEASE – The former director of a prison re-entry nonprofit has been sentenced to 10-13 years behind bars for stealing more than $200,000 from the organization and its donors, including elderly Ohioans, Attorney General Dave Yost announced.
“He didn’t just steal money – he deprived the community of a helping hand for inmates seeking a fresh start as law-abiding citizens,” Yost said. “Now, it’s his turn to pay a debt to society.”
The sentencing of Thomas Ostrosky, 52, follows his Nov. 12 guilty plea to felony charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, theft from a person in a protected class, solicitation fraud and telecommunications fraud.
Besides the prison sentence, Ostrosky must pay restitution of $207,650, which the Attorney General’s Office will distribute for charitable purposes. He also is barred from holding a position of trust or handling the financial affairs of others.
Ostrosky was indicted in April and arrested in Dade City, Florida, following an investigation by Yost’s Charitable Law Section.
The charges stemmed from Ostrosky’s management of the Lazarus Experience, a nonprofit he founded in 2017. The organization, no longer in operation, was described as a Christian ministry providing re-entry services to incarcerated men in northwest Ohio.
The Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office appointed Yost’s Charitable Law Section to prosecute the case.