Two men accused of scheme to defraud Manatee County of $1.4 million

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office reported Tuesday the arrest of a Georgia man who was one of two men suspected of defrauding the county out of almost $1.4 million.

A warrant has been issued for the other suspect, whose whereabouts is unknown.

A Sheriff's Office report said Timothy Austin Ledford, 26, of Adairsville, Georgia, is charged with a "scheme to defraud and money laundering." Detectives have issued an arrest warrant for Ezekiel Deshaun Chester, also from Adairsville, Georgia. He is wanted on charges of scheme to defraud and conspiracy.

The report said the two suspects were identified after detectives followed "a trail of transactions."

Ledford was arrested in Georgia on June 26 and later brought to Manatee County.

The report said on March 18, "Manatee County Public Works began email correspondence with Neal Land and Communities regarding payments for services provided by the company. After the email providing the amount to be paid by Manatee County was sent to the legitimate Neal Land representatives, an unknown suspect began responding as a Neal representative. The unidentified suspect, continued correspondence as a Neal representative and requested payment by writing a check and physically delivering it to a Neal employee through a wire transfer payment method."

One of the suspects sent a letter to the county on a Neal company letterhead and other fraudulent documents requesting a change to a wire transfer payment to be made in Timothy Ledford's name. On March 28, that account received $221,165. The next day, Ledford transferred $195,000 of the funds to another account in his name.

The report said 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 various bank branches where they made withdrawals in the form of cashier’s checks.  

The report 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 and Neighborhoods was made for $1,149,466, sent via wire transfer to one of Ledford’s accounts. Between April 5 and April 17, Ledford transferred $590,000 to one of his accounts and then withdrew $495,045 in cash via teller withdrawals. Detectives obtained photo surveillance showing Ledford making some of the withdrawals."

Ledford received $1,370,631 in all from the county. The report said Manatee County Sheriff’s Office fraud detectives have frozen bank accounts containing an undisclosed amount of money, believed to be a substantial portion of the stolen funds. The process of recovering that money is on-going, and no other details are available.    

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