FCS has yet to receive any proceeds in RICO case

Floyd County Schools Superintendent John Jackson said the system hasn’t received any of the proceeds that have been forfeited or seized from the RICO case yet. However, all of the assets connected to the alleged decadelong thefts from FCS are being built up to eventually be turned over in whole instead of in a piecemeal process as they come in, he added. Jackson said he knows Floyd County District Attorney Leigh Patterson is working hard to wrap everything up without a trial.

There is a criminal case and a separate civil case. No trial date has been set for the civil suit and no indictments have been handed down related to the criminal case. The cases involve charges of money laundering and payments for construction work that was never performed. A settlement agreement — which involves Dwayne Richardson, Joey Richardson and several corporate entities — was approved in Floyd County Superior Court on July 24. The settlement states $96,834.99 is the total amount to be forfeited by the defendants — $38,000 is to be paid by Dwayne Richardson, who was one of the 10 alleged coconspirators arrested in June 2016, and $58,834.99 is to be forfeited from the defendants’ Regions Bank accounts.

Joey Richardson and Henderson Real Estate Inc., which is listed as a defendant, “have paid nothing toward the forfeited monies to the state under this agreement and deny any liability, whatsoever,” the agreement states.

Summerville Building and Supply Inc., Open Road Hot Shots LLC and Richardson Enterprises of Georgia LLC, under the agreement, are ordered to be dissolved. The receiver’s monthly report filed on July 12 in Superior Court details the seized assets in the civil case — the net value totaled $844,231.12. Included in this total is $412,860 from real estate, $350,651.25 from financial accounts and $275,000 is from the miscellaneous property taken in from Derry and Lisa Richardson’s Summerville home at 241 Riverbluff Drive. They are no longer living in the home, after leaving it sometime around Aug. 1.

The Richardsons — Derry Richardson was the former maintenance director for the system — are two of 13 people who have been arrested since last year and charged with inflating and falsifying invoices paid by the school system. They are each charged with violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and other crimes.