Georgia man arrested in connection to $1.4 million fraud scheme targeting Manatee County

A Georgia man has been arrested for posing as a Neal Land & Communities representative to defraud the Manatee County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller's office of nearly $1.4 million.

Timothy Austin Ledford, 26, of Adairsville, Ga, was arrested on June 26 and charged with Scheme to Defraud and Money Laundering by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. Ledford remains in the Manatee County Jail on a total bond of $350,000.

Detectives have also issued an arrest warrant for Ezekiel Deshaun Chester, also from Adairsville, in connection to the case.

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During the investigation, detectives found that an unidentified subject interjected into email correspondence for payment by Manatee County Public Works and a real Neal Land & Communities representative discussing payments due for services rendered.

The subject then continued correspondence with Manatee County posing as a Neal representative and requested a change of payment from writing a check and physically delivering it to a Neal employee to a wire transfer payment method. The unknown suspect later sent a letter on Neal Land & Communities company letterhead, and other fraudulent documents, requesting the change to a wire transfer payment made to a bank account in Ledford's name.

On March 28, the account received a $221,165 wire transfer from the Manatee County Clerk of Circuit Court & Comptroller's office. On March 31, the next scheduled payment to Neal Land & Communities was made for almost $1.15 million and was sent via wire transfer to one of Ledford’s accounts. In all, Ledford's accounts fraudulently received $1.37 million in two payments sent by the Manatee County clerk's office.

Ledford told detectives he was approached by Chester about a scheme to make money. Ledford provided Chester with account information, and once the fraudulent wire transfers were completed, Chester accompanied Ledford to make withdrawals from various bank branches in the form of cashier’s checks.

On March 31, a cashier’s check for $20,000 from Ledford’s account was made payable to Chester. In early April Ledford withdrew another $495,045 in cash via teller withdrawals.

The Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Angelina Colonneso's office first issued a public notice of the incident on April 18, although little information was provided at that time. MCSO said the clerk's cooperation with the investigation helped trace transactions to the two subjects.

"We thank the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office for their swift investigation leading to an arrest in this matter," Colonneso said in a statement on Tuesday. "Fraud cannot always be prevented. We will be working with the Sheriff’s Office to learn additional details on how this cybercrime was carried out in order to work with the county to further enhance our already existing controls, as all protocols were followed in the transfer."

"As this is still an active investigation, we are unable to provide additional details at this time."

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Georgia man arrested for defrauding Manatee County of $1.4 million