Manatee County Scammed Of $1.4M By Two Georgia Men: Sheriff

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — Two Georgia men face charges after scamming Manatee County of nearly $1.4 million, authorities said.

Timothy Austin Ledford, 26, of Adairsville, Georgia, was arrested on June 26 and brought to Florida, where he was charged with scheming to defraud and money laundering, according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Detectives also issued a warrant for the arrest of Ezekial Deshaun Chester, also of Adairsville. He is wanted on charges of scheming to defraud and conspiracy. Detectives continue to look for him.
Investigators worked with the Manatee County Clerk’s Office to follow a trail of transactions and build cases against Ledford and Chester.

Manatee County Public Works began email correspondence with Neal Land & Communities on March 18 regarding payments for services provided by the company.

After an email providing the amount to be paid for the county was sent to legitimate Neal Land representatives, an unknown suspect began responding to the county as someone who worked for the company, the sheriff’s office said.

The suspect continued to email with county staff as a Neal Land representative and asked for payment in various ways, including writing a check and physically delivering it to a Neal Land employee and sending a wire transfer.

The men sent a letter on Neal Land & Neighborhoods company letterhead and sent other fraudulent documents requesting the change to a wire transfer payment to a bank account in Ledford’s name.

He received more than $221,000 from the county on March 28, the sheriff’s office said. The next day, he transferred $195,000 of those funds to another account in his name.

During an interview with detectives, Ledford told them he was approached by Chester about a scheme to make money. He gave Chester his account information, and once the fraudulent wire transfers were completed, Chester accompanied Ledford to various bank branches, where they made withdrawals in the form of cashier’s checks.

A cashier’s check for $20,000 from Ledford’s account was made payable to Chester on March 31, the sheriff’s office said.

Detectives identified Chester from flight itineraries from airline purchases made with the stolen funds and bank surveillance video.

That same day, the next scheduled payment to Neal Land & Neighborhoods was made for more than $1.14 million sent via wire transfer to one of Ledford’s accounts.

Between April 5 and 17, he transferred $590,000 to one of his accounts and then withdrew just under $500,000 in cash via teller withdrawals. Detectives obtained photo surveillance showing Ledford making some of the withdrawals, the sheriff’s office said.

With the assistance of Chester, Ledford received $1.37 million in this scheme against the county.
MCSO fraud detectives have frozen bank accounts containing an undisclosed amount of money that is believed to be a substantial portion of the stolen funds, the agency said.

The process of recovering that money is ongoing, and no other details are available.

Ledford remains in the Manatee County Jail on a $350,000 bond.