Fraud, missing warnings, and safeguards that fell short at Visit PCB
Following the arrest of Visit Panama City Beach’s Vice President of Administration on fraud and grant theft charges, News 13 has been digging deeper into financial oversight at the tourism agency.
For years, fraudsters have tried to steal tourism-related public funds in Bay County.
In 2021, Bay County Sheriff’s Investigators uncovered an internal theft at the Panama City Beach Sports Complex.
Sports park financial manager Darren Landry altered daily revenue reports and embezzled funds of more than $37,000 in ticket sales.
It began in October 2020 and continued until he was fired in November 2021.
But no one discovered the theft until his replacement found discrepancies, triggering a financial audit of the facility.
The Bay County TDC and the CVB reviewed the findings of the fraud at a board meeting in May of 2022.
There was a presentation reviewing the fiscal year 2021 financial audit.
According to the meeting minutes, management implemented actions to ensure against future fraud attempts by employees.
The meeting minutes state, ‘point of sale systems were changed to ensure against fraud.’
Visit PCB President and CEO Dan Rowe stated the CVB was made whole from the fraud through insurance.
Board members said the sports park handled the follow-up very well and pointed out that the fraud was committed by a non-CVB employee.
In March 2023, board members reviewed the audit findings from fiscal year 22 with a presentation from the auditor.
No deficiencies were found.
And in April of 2024, board members reviewed the fiscal year 23 audit.
The auditor reported no deficiencies or negative findings.
As for Landry, the Walton County man pled no contest, was adjudicated guilty, received a 10-year suspended prison sentence, and 5 years probation.
But in July 2022, he violated the probation by stealing more than $20,000. Authorities revoked his probation, and, in December, a Bay County judge imposed his original 10-year sentence.
Unfortunately, fraud didn’t stop with the sports park.
Bay County TDC officials were targeted in an email scam involving a fake $250,000 invoice tied to an artificial reef project.
The invoice came from a fake Okaloosa County TDC email.
The Bay TDC wired the money, but bank employees flagged the transaction and froze the account before the funds were lost.
After the incident, TDC officials said they updated their money wiring procedures to prevent this from happening again.
But a few weeks later, Aaron Lee started his position as vice president of administration and allegedly began using his CVB-issued credit card to steal nearly $1 million.
Lee racked up over one thousand charges, most of which were never documented.
Here’s another oddity.
The 2021, 22 and 23 fiscal year audit reports were presented and discussed before the combined CVB-TDC boards.
But the 2024 audit was never brought before the board.
News 13 discovered that the findings of that $22,000 audit were never made public.
The audit issued red flags about a lack of oversight over Lee’s position.
And over the weekend, Lee was arrested on charges of grand theft and fraudulent use of a credit card.
The pattern of what appears to be financial carelessness has many people asking whether all these additional safeguards were ignored or just implemented to appease the public.
