City enlists assistance of FBI
By BILL RETTEW JR.
Staff Writer
City police called in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to lead the hunt for thieves who stole $635,000 from city bank accounts. Police recently reported that more than $170,000 was recovered from the Nov. 30 theft of city funds held in accounts at CenterState Bank.Thursday, Sgt. Mark Stroup said more of the missing funds were recovered, though he refused to specify the amount returned to city coffers.
Stroup is the lead local police officer on the investigation and meets weekly with fellow task force members, the Florida Department of Enforcement, the state attorney’s office and Lake Wales Det. Ivelisse Rodriguez.
The city served more than 100 subpoenas and those documents were returned from respondents and presented to the FBI.
Since the FBI is involved, any prosecution of suspects will now take place in federal rather than state courts, according to Police Chief Herb Gillis.
“I can simply comment that I have asked the FBI to assume the lead in this case as it is a multi-jurisdictional investigation,” said Gillis.
Lake Wales Police will likely continue investigating after meeting with FBI representatives.
“From there we’ll know what help they’ll need from us,” said Stroup.
