Jury finds Florida man guilty of scamming Fort Worth-area school district out of $2M
A Florida man who scammed the Crowley Independent School District out of $2 million was found guilty by a jury on Wednesday.
Donald Conkright was originally charged in federal court in Texas two years ago. The case was dropped in June 2019 and re-filed in the Southern District of Florida.
After a three-day trial, in which Conkright testified, a jury found him guilty of money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 11 in Key West.
On Oct. 24, 2018, the director of accounting for Crowley ISD received an email that appeared to be from an accountant at Steele & Freeman Inc., a construction company that is a vendor for the school. The email claimed it was providing updated banking information for Steele & Freeman for payments the school district owed the company.
The school district initially sent a $1 payment to the account to make sure it worked. When the district confirmed it did, it continued the payments.
The school district sent a payment of $522,588.98 to the new bank account on Nov. 13. The next day, the school district sent the bank account more than $1.4 million, court documents say.
At some point, the FBI became involved and found that the bank account provided to the district was owned by Conkright. He had no connection to Steele & Freeman or the school district, the documents say.
Court filings accused Conkright of making 51 withdrawals from the account between Nov. 13 and Nov. 18 totaling $1.9 million. He allegedly purchased Rolex watches and a BMW with the money, records say.
As a result of the alleged scheme, Crowley ISD lost $1,995,715.
In June, Superintendent Michael McFarland said a portion of the $2 million was found. McFarland did not specify how much of the money has been found.
“I want to assure our community that Crowley ISD remains financially strong, and no district projects have been affected by this crime,” he said in a statement released to the Star-Telegram.
A news statement released on Thursday said: “I also want to thank the team of Crowley ISD employees who have worked to put additional safeguards in place to prevent future fraud, including stronger safety procedures in our finance and technology departments. Every Crowley ISD employee now receives cybersecurity training, and staff members with more access to sensitive information are required to complete additional training.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 12:35 PM.
