Scheme to steal millions from taxpayers

July 30th, 2008 | Category: Florida Politics Blog

A scheme to defraud state taxpayers out of millions of dollars was thwarted by some heads up Regions Bank employees and one of the state’s biggest road contractors — but not before some of the money was transferred to Beirut, Lebanon.

FBI agents caught Ali Hassan Hammoud, 35, minutes before he was to board an Air France flight to Lebanon, but they were too late

to stop the transfer to Lebanon of some of the $5.7-million stolen from the state treasury. The money was transferred in four installments after state officials received bogus paperwork directing them to ship the money to an detail Hammoud controlled instead of sending it to Anderson Columbia, a Lake City interpretation company.

More here.