The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation into home repairs performed on the home of DeKalb County’s interim CEO that may have been paid for by county taxpayers illegally.
FBI is probing to see if Lee May, then a DeKalb County commissioner, received unjustifiable special treatment when his house backed up with raw sewage in 2010. After workers for DeKalb County stopped the initial damage, May allegedly contacted a friend who worked with a water removal service company, who reportedly pressured the proprietor to fix the problem completely.
The problem is that May did not pay a single dime for the repairs, the FBI is alleging.
When the company did not receive payment for the cleanup and repairs, the water removal company submitted gave the invoice to the county’s purchasing department. A check for almost $6,500 was given to the owner the following day, WSB-TV states, meaning the department paid the bill in full.
Customarily, the county will only reimburse residents after they pay the bills out of their own pockets, and only covers 60 to 70 percent of the cost. The water removal company’s owner told WSB-TV that he was paid in full by the purchasing department.
The WSB-TV and Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigations revealed that May didn’t procure the prerequisite number of estimates to come into eligibility for the county’s homeowner reimbursement program.
Moreover, May’s friend at the water removal company allegedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars in county contracts following the incident, the FBI investigation is alleging.
Stay tuned to further developments in this case.
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