Contractor says city owes them $600K+ as check gets caught up in fraud investigation

Police have opened a fraud investigation after a check for more than $600,000 that was supposed to go to one construction company, found its way into someone else’s bank account.

Now the City of South Fulton is trying to figure out how it happened and who sent it.

“It would be a problem for me, yeah. I’m going to need my money,” one woman said after learning the company, SD&C Inc. still hasn’t received its $614,000 payment for work it did on Fairburn Road.

The city told Channel 2′s Tom Jones the money hasn’t been paid because it is caught up in a fraud investigation.

“That’s really shady,” the woman said.

An SD&C Inc. worker told Jones by phone it completed the project and sent the city an invoice for payment. It said the city said the bill had been paid.

TRENDING STORIES:

• UGA football player arrested for driving at speeds above 100 miles per hour

• 1 dead, 1 injured after shootout near Spalding County Courthouse

• State will not charge Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in Georgia election interference case

The company said it then learned someone sent the payment to a bank that’s not on its account with the city, and it was sent to a name not affiliated with its company.

City of South Fulton Police Chief Keith Meadows sent a statement that says in part:

“There was an attempt to commit fraud against the city for a $614,000 payment to a vendor. The account was frozen before the payment was processed. An investigation is underway to determine the details of this matter. No arrests have been made.”

The construction company said, “Obviously somebody has deposited money into the wrong account,” and said they still hadn’t been paid.

Meadows said forensic investigators are continuing to work with the bank while taxpayers’ dollars remain frozen and safe until its criminal investigation is complete.

He wanted to reiterate that no tax dollars were stolen in this case.

IN OTHER NEWS: