The Tallahassee Democrat reports that a suspect from Alabama who was working with the Florida Department of Financial Services has allegedly committed fraud, grand theft and has been charged with an aggravated white collar crime. The suspect allegedly used unclaimed property funds that were owed to the state in excess of $100,000.
The suspect was the owner of the Alabama-based company Compliance Services Group (CSG). Tallahassee tasked the company with auditing businesses throughout Florida to determine if they were complying with state law. CSG is one of many private contractors tasked with such responsibilities in Florida.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat story, court documents found that CSG ordered at least one company to transfer a substantial amount of money to the company's trust account as a way to pay what it owed to the state. The money, allegedly, was never transferred to Tallahassee but was incrementally transferred to CSG's operating account. More than $117,000 is alleged to have been illegally transferred. CSG allegedly told Tallahassee that it was still in the process of auditing the company in question despite having received what the company, allegedly, owed to Florida.
White collar crimes like this can be extraordinarily complex and since the company that allegedly committed a white collar crime was based in a state outside of Florida, the issues may be particularly intricate. Furthermore, since Tallahassee outsources many auditing responsibilities, politicians and prosecutors may use the CSG case as an opportunity to appear tough on white collar crime. The suspect in this case, and any similar case, will need an extremely shrewd and knowledgeable white collar criminal defense attorney to minimize the risk of the most severe penalties.