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Flower Mound police arrest embezzlement suspects
By Chris Roark, croark@starlocalnews.com
The Flower Mound Police Department arrested two individuals Thursday who have admitted to embezzling more than $100,000 from a local construction company.
According to police records, Dallas residents Leonidas James, 42, and Ninekia Spears-James, 33, told detectives the couple was involved in a scheme in which they used $101,104 in fraudulent checks from Valley Ridge Roofing and Construction in Flower Mound for their home improvement projects and kept the rest.
A probable cause affidavit states that Spears-James had worked for Valley Ridge, where part of her job responsibilities included taking business invoices to the owner, Randy Eastburg.
Eastburg’s office manager contacted Muniz Painting and discovered that Spears-James had hired the company to paint the couple’s home. That work was paid for by checks Eastburg wrote, believing the invoices Spears-James turned in were legitimate, the report stated. Those invoices totaled more than $5,500.
Further investigation revealed similar instances in which Eastburg wrote checks to Martinez Construction and Remodeling for about $39,300 and DFW Gutters for about $56,200. Eastburg had also believed those invoices, submitted by Spears-James, were legitimate.
The report stated that Eastburg’s office manager provided police with copies of all the checks, which had the endorsement signature of “James” or “LR James.”
The report stated that an assumed name records search from the Dallas County County Clerk’s office revealed that Martinez Construction and Remodeling was filed in Aug. 29, 2011 and that James was the owner. The business name was withdrawn Sept. 17, 2012.
The search also showed James as being the owner of DFW Gutters.
“Work was done by Muniz Painting,” said Capt. Wess Griffin of the Flower Mound Police Department. “But the other two were fake businesses, and the money was channeled to that fake business so they could pocket the money.”
During an interview with Flower Mound police, Spears-James, with her attorney, admitted that the businesses’ names were set up for the purpose of this scheme and that no legitimate work was ever performed by those businesses.
She also admitted that she made all of the fraudulent invoices, according to the affidavit.
Griffin said there is no indication that the couple has performed a similar scheme elsewhere.
“The only thing that made this successful was that [Spears-James] was a trusted employee,” Griffin said.
Griffin said James and Spears-James turned themselves in Thursday.
They will be charged with theft of more than $100,000, a felony.
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