Bodyguards for GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy didn’t have required Ohio licenses

COLUMBUS, Ohio—During several of Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s recent public appearances, he was accompanied by at least two bodyguards who weren’t registered with the state as required by law, a cleveland.com analysis shows.

The revelation comes as the Columbus-area entrepreneur is moving to fire the Ohio company providing his security after one of his family’s bodyguards was arrested on federal drug‑trafficking charges.

Social-media photos posted by ARK Protection Group of Wayne County; Rpm Gazbpda. the company’s owner who describes himself online as Ramaswamy’s “head of security”; and Ramaswamy’s campaign depict at least two men with Ramaswamy’s security detail during recent events who state records show either had an expired Ohio security-guard license or no such license at all.

Under Ohio law, all security personnel – including personal bodyguards – have to be registered with the state and pass a background check, then renew that registration annually.

They also need additional state certification in order to carry pistols, revolvers, or semi-automatic weapons on the job – which, among other things, requires at least 25 hours of firearms training.

If anyone’s caught working a security job without state permission, both they and their employer can face criminal charges, punishable with jail time and fines.

The Ohio Department of Public Safety, which regulates the state’s private security industry, can additionally fine violators $100 for each day they broke the law, as well as put offending security companies out of business.

However, photos posted by ARK Protection Group on Facebook and Instagram showed (and tagged) Christopher Endres at a Ramaswamy speech at the University of Cincinnati on Dec. 1. Other photos show Endres standing alongside Ramaswamy at Turning Point USA event in Phoenix, where Ramaswamy spoke on Dec. 20.

Endres’ state registration with ARK Protection Group expired in February 2024, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Bret Crow.

The company set its Instagram account to private on Friday.

Photos posted to Ramaswamy’s Instagram account on Jan. 12 show a second bodyguard, Jacob Owens, accompanying the candidate during a visit to Chillicothe. State records show no sign that Owens has ever been registered to work as security (Ohio does not recognize security-guard licenses or registrations from other states).

In an email, Crow stated that neither Endres nor Owens were included in ARK Protection Groups’ roster of private security guards that it submitted to the state.

Crow would neither confirm nor deny that state officials are investigating ARK Protection Group. However, Crow added that a post by D.J. Byrnes on his left-leaning blog, The Rooster, “contains real information.” The Rooster was first to report ARK Protection Group’s employee‑registration issues.

The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com has reached out to Owens for comment. Endres was briefly reached by phone Friday morning but hung up when a Plain Dealer/cleveland.com reporter identified himself.

A third ARK Protection Group bodyguard for Ramaswamy’s family, Justin Salsburey of Bellefontaine, was arrested Dec. 30 on charges that he and his wife received and sold counterfeit OxyContin pills containing fentanyl, as well as Adderall pills. Salsburey’s security guard license expired last June, though it wasn’t immediately clear if he continued to provide security for Ramaswmay beyond then.

In a statement Friday, Ramaswamy campaign spokeswoman Connie Luck didn’t directly answer questions about how Ramaswamy came to hire ARK Protection Group, nor what vetting – if any – he did of the company or its employees before hiring them to protect him and his family.

“The Ramaswamy family’s contract with Ark Protection Group specifies the requirement to comply with all relevant laws and regulations,” Luck stated in response.

Luck added that “in light of last week’s deeply troubling developments,” Ramaswamy and his family have “begun the process of relieving Ark Protection Group of their responsibilities and transitioning to a new service provider,” Luck stated.

When Luck was asked whether the “troubling developments” only involved news of Salsburey’s arrest, she replied, “This decision was set in motion following last week’s developments.”

Luck also provided a statement from Gazboda stating that he and his company “are sorry to have disappointed the Ramaswamy family.

“Their safety and protection remain our utmost priority, and we are supporting them as they transition to a new security service provider,” Gazboda says in the statement.

The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com has reached out to Gazboda for further comment and details.

While Ramaswamy was the most frequent public figure to show up on ARK Protection Group’s social-media accounts, he wasn’t the only one.

Other photos on the company’s Instagram account, as well as Gazboda’s Facebook account, showed the retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant with celebrities such as singer/rapper Jelly Roll and prominent conservative political leaders such as Donald Trump Jr., ex-U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and commentator Tucker Carlson.

Theodore Owens, executive director of the Ohio Association of Security & Investigation Services, the state’s main trade group for private security services, said in a phone interview that he was “flabbergasted” to read about ARK Protection Group’s issues – first with Salsburey’s arrest, and now with its registration issues.

“I hate to say this, but it makes the whole industry in Ohio now look bad,” said Owens, who’s not related to Jacob Owens. “I wish you could see me, because I’ve got my face in the palm of my hand right now.”

ARK Protection Group is not a member of Owens’ trade group, and Owens – a 20-year veteran of Ohio’s private security industry — said he hadn’t heard of the company before reading about Salsburey’s arrest last week.

Owens said his organization has already been working with state lawmakers – he declined to say exactly who – to introduce legislation later this year to update Ohio’s regulations for private security personnel – from creating new standards for training and firearms qualification to cracking down on security companies that pay employees under the table (which means the employees aren’t eligible for workers’ compensation if they’re attacked or hurt on the job).

Owens said hearing about ARK Protection Group’s issues has motivated him to push even harder to get those reforms in place.

“I’m like, ‘Yeah, we need to talk to our legislators again and really start working on this,’” he said.