A Florida man who is alleged to be at the center of a forged construction bond scam has entered a 'not guilty' plea at the federal court in Atlanta, Georgia where he faces federal criminal charges, and Whitehorn Construction Inc. — the original contractor for the Airport Road— is among the victims of this man's alleged scheme.

Erick D. Campbell was arrested June 3 in Jacksonville, Florida where he and another man, Steve Stokeling, as well as their companies, faced a civil action suit at the federal court in Pensacola over their alleged fraudulent bond scheme, in which they received close to $2 million in premium payments.

Court documents from the Florida civil case show that the defendants received $399,894 for issuing the forged bonds in the local Airport Road project. The civil case also provided other information pertaining to Campbell’s actions.

CRIMINAL CASE

Campbell’s arrest came after a federal grand jury in Atlanta handed down on May 29 a six-count indictment based on a case by the U.S. Department of Justice. Campbell faces three counts of wire fraud; two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

He was returned from Pensacola to the Atlanta federal court where he pled not guilty to the charges on June 20.

The indictment alleges that around July last year, Campbell — aided and abetted by others known and unknown to the Grand Jury — knowingly devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud entities of the US government, state and local governments as well as private businesses as obligees on surety bonds.

Through the scheme, the defendant allegedly defrauded and obtained money and property from private businesses, corporations and individuals as principals on surety bonds by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, it says.

Campbell fraudulently held himself out to contractors and government agencies as having the authority to execute or issue surety bonds or policies of insurance on behalf of one or more of the Chubb group of companies, whose affiliates include Federal Insurance Company and Pacific Indemnity Company, according to the indictment.

It is alleged that Campbell defrauded various government entities and contractors by issuing forged and fraudulent surety bonds, listing one or more of the Chubb companies as the surety on the bonds, the indictment alleges, and noted that Campbell fraudulently used the actual names and forged signatures of current employees or former employees on surety bonds.

The indictment listed 23 projects in which Campbell used forged and fraudulent bonds and power of attorney documents, on behalf of Chubb.

Among the projects listed in the indictment is the $7.99 million project by Whitehorn Construction for the American Samoa government for the Airport Road project.

If convicted of all charges, the defendant faces a maximum prison sentence of 70 years plus a consecutive minimum mandatory sentence of four years in prison, according to separate court documents filed by prosecutors after the defendant was arrested in Florida.

CIVIL SUIT

Prior to the criminal charges, a magistrate judge at the Pensacola federal court issued a permanent injunction barring Campbell and his company, the Individual Surety Group LLC., as well as Stokeling and First Fidelity Asurety Company LLC., from selling surety bonds bearing the names of Chubby or any of its companies. The defendants were also ordered to pay attorney fees of close to $84,000 to Chubb.

Plaintiffs filed their suit in July last year and court documents provide brief summaries of each of the contractors and their projects in which the defendants had allegedly issued forged bonds. For Whitehorn, it was the company’s owner Loran Whitehorn, who contacted Campbell to obtain performance and payment bonds and a power of attorney, according to the suit.

As of January last year, Whitehorn had paid $399,894.25 in premium payments for the bonds to Campbell directly and to The Individual Surety Group, LLC., according to court documents, which also listed the dates and amount of each payment made by wire transfer to the defendant’s bank account in Florida.

Than on June 24, 2013, Campbell sent Whitehorn documents purporting to be “replacement” bonds for the purported valid performance bond, payment bond, and power of attorney relating to the American Samoa airport road project and bearing the names of the Chubb Companies.

“The American Samoa Airport Road Bonds are worthless forgeries created by defendants with the intent to trade off the good name and sound financial reputation of the Chubb Companies and defraud Whitehorn and the American Samoa Government,” the suit says.

Plaintiffs argued that the Airport Road bond bears one of its company’s names — the Federal Insurance Company — as surety but it had no involvement with the issuance of the bond by Campbell.

Additionally, other signatures purporting to be those of company officials, including a notary stamp were all forged according to the plaintiff. (Documents provided in the civil case include a copy of the “Performance Bond” document, which plaintiff says is fraudulent and contained forged signatures of its executives.)

Meanwhile, locally, Whitehorn’s attorney, Sharron Rancourt, yesterday, filed a petition to dismiss the government’s petition for review in the Appellate Division of the High Court. The Administrative Law Judge had ruled in Whitehorn’s favor, saying their contract had been dismissed for convenience, not default. The ALJ ruling had cleared the way for the construction company to get paid for costs incurred during the time they were doing the work in the airport contract. The government has maintained the contract was in default due to Whitehorn’s inability to provide a bond for the contracted work.