"NO CURRENT OR FORMER CITY EMPLOYEES WERE IMPLICATED
IN CREDIT CARD FRAUD"
Royston Chief of Police Daniel Cleveland
On the last day on the job for City Manager Brian McDougal, the editor of
the Franklin County Citizen and News Leader chose to run a headline story
in The News Leader, "CREDIT CARD MISUSE PROBE UNDERWAY." As reported
by Mark Berryman, a reporter for the Citizen/News Leader, the paper first
heard "rumors" of the credit card theft on July 12, almost a month
before the newspaper story appeared.
City Manager Brian McDougal alerted the credit card provider and turned the
matter over to them about a month ago. The city got a new card and went about
its business. The city suffered no monetary loss.
It was apparent from the pattern of charges that credit card theft, rather
than internal fraud, was the probable cause. Credit card fraud is becoming
one of the fastest growing white-collar crimes in America.
Nothing appeared in the local papers or on this website at that time. Neganews
considered it to be, at best, a minor story, if not a "non story."
Why the print media delayed to print old news, or non news, until this time
makes their timing suspicious.
The matter is in the hands of Visa and Pinnacle Bank, as it should be. The
city’s only problems were the usual inconvenience of replacing the card,
and a front-page headline timed to coincide with the departure of the city
manager. The two matters are entirely unrelated, and the incident has nothing
to do with the city manager’s departure.
Hopefully it was just a slow news week for The News Leader.
Ó2004 Dave Nelson