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  • A Bag That Should Not Be There: The Meridian Dorrville Racket

    A Bag That Should Not Be There: The Meridian Dorrville Racket
    2026/07/28
    A Bag That Should Not Be There: The Meridian Dorrville Racket

    Forty-three thousand two hundred dollars in a hospital specimen bag sat on a Dorrville pavement at 7:40 a.m., still dry after a night of light rain - and the meter reader who found it did not touch it. Who would hide that much cash in a container designed to keep liquids out, and why did no one come back for it?

    In this episode, we tell how a routine discovery on September 11, 2019 unspooled into a year-long probe that exposed three simultaneous schemes tied to Meridian Courier Associates. Listen to how mileage gaps, surplus specimen bags, and an employee ledger drew a map of a shadow route and the question that finally connected the dots.

    Person: Diane White
    Date: September 11, 2019
    Location: Dorrville
    Company: Meridian Courier Associates
    Investigator: Howard Simmons

    - $43,200 found inside a standard medical specimen bag photographed at 7:40 a.m.
    - Meridian incorporated in 2016 on Fennick Industrial Parkway with Lloyd Sharp signing the lease.
    - Keith Vickers hired spring 2017 and noted consistent 29-mile nightly discrepancies in logs.
    - Inspector Greg Farrow recorded 37 specimen bags in Meridian storage in February 2018, 12 surplus.
    - Lloyd Sharp was 54 at sentencing; Beverly Nash submitted a victim-impact statement after contacting tips on ~October 18, 2019.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • Freezers in the Church: The DYAA Youth League Fraud

    Freezers in the Church: The DYAA Youth League Fraud
    2026/07/27
    Freezers in the Church: The DYAA Youth League Fraud

    A stack of six commercial chest freezers, still in their manufacturer cardboard and shipping labels, sat in a church annex for nineteen days-addressed to a company that existed only on paper. How did those mislabeled freezers become the single mistake that unveiled a five-year scheme draining a beloved youth league?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from the August 11, 2014 discovery to the state investigation, detailing who handled DYAA finances, where money was routed, and which oversights failed. What specific transactions and choices let hundreds of families' funds disappear?

    Person: Melissa Hunter
    Person: John Hall
    Person: Paula Edwards
    Person: Darlene Gardner
    Date: August 11, 2014

    - Six commercial chest freezers sat in the church annex for nineteen days with shipping labels addressed to Crestfield Catering LLC.
    - Crestfield Catering LLC had been incorporated four years earlier and existed only on paper.
    - Melissa Hunter photographed every shipping label and filed a report with the Ohio Department of Commerce three days later, on August 14, 2014.
    - By 2009 the DYAA annual operating budget had grown to roughly $400,000 funded by registration fees, sponsorship checks, and concessions.
    - Eleven businesses sponsored the league in 2014, and sponsorship checks from at least one landscaping company were deposited into an account other than the DYAA operating account.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • A Dog Finds What Concrete Was Meant to Hide: The Keystone Racket

    A Dog Finds What Concrete Was Meant to Hide: The Keystone Racket
    2026/07/26
    A Dog Finds What Concrete Was Meant to Hide: The Keystone Racket

    A dusty tablecloth stamped KLS-47-FLD was buried eighteen inches beneath fresh concrete on a public trail - and a miniature schnauzer named Biscuit refused to move until his owner found it. The linen traced back to a local company supplying 41 restaurants, six hotels, two hospital cafeterias, and one municipal account that had received free deliveries for five years; how did a routine vendor become a system for moving unrecorded cash? Who benefited from a municipal account that was never invoiced?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery at Sycamore Creek Nature Trail to records in the Pallmore Financial Crimes Task Force and the audit that exposed missing invoices and suspicious fuel receipts. The episode covers the tablecloth find, Keystone Linen Service’s client list, delivery patterns, and the audit trail that started with a hotel complaint - could a familiar local business have been running a hidden racket under everyone’s nose?

    Person: Biscuit the miniature schnauzer
    Date: July 11, 2014
    Person: Howard Evans, owner of Keystone Linen Service
    Person: Alice Clark, forensic accountant
    Topic: Keystone Linen Service unrecorded service adjustments

    - The tablecloth found was a commercial tablecloth stamped with service code KLS-47-FLD and was buried eighteen inches beneath mortared concrete.
    - Keystone served 41 restaurants, 6 hotels, 2 hospital cafeterias, and 1 municipal account in Pallmore.
    - Councilman Robert Feld’s Second Ward received linen deliveries from Keystone from 2009 through 2014 with no invoices and no payments.
    - The operation’s collection agent, Stephen Vought, visited 12 accounts and collected service adjustments averaging roughly $60,000 per month across those accounts.
    - Eight Thursdays between November 2013 and February 2014 showed a Keystone delivery truck’s GPS at the warehouse while fuel receipts indicated fills at a station three miles east.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • Fisherman Finds a Dry Binder Eight Days After the Flood: The Market Board Racket

    Fisherman Finds a Dry Binder Eight Days After the Flood: The Market Board Racket
    2026/07/26
    Fisherman Finds a Dry Binder Eight Days After the Flood: The Market Board Racket

    The binder was bone-dry and held 114 intact pages where the Sullen River had crested 40 centimeters higher eight days earlier - a document that helped close a four-year extortion scheme tied to the Kelder City Farmers Market Certification Board. How did a wedged, dry record survive a flood and expose a system that sped inspections from 132 days to just 11 for favored farms?

    In this episode, you’ll hear how a fisherman’s find, a deputy director’s long tenure, and a small consultancy’s paperwork reshuffled access to Kelder City’s markets, and whether the same pattern in a neighboring county will ever see charges.

    Person: Gregory Gray
    Date: third week of June 2017
    Location: eastern bank of the Sullen River
    Case: four-year extortion scheme involving the Kelder City Farmers Market Certification Board
    Pages: 114

    - The river left a silt mark at roughly 40 centimeters where the binder was wedged.
    - Gregory Gray had fished that eastern bank for more than 30 years.
    - Martin Flood had been deputy director of the board for 9 years by summer 2017.
    - Farms paying Tri-State averaged 11 days from application to inspection; others averaged 132 days.
    - The scheme began in March 2013 and was exposed after the binder surfaced in June 2017.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • The Bail Bond Machine That Hid Eleven Years of Quiet Fraud

    The Bail Bond Machine That Hid Eleven Years of Quiet Fraud
    2026/07/26
    The Bail Bond Machine That Hid Eleven Years of Quiet Fraud

    A county bond-printing machine, stamped "Teller Parish Clerk's Office," sat on a cinder block shelf behind chain-link fence at a bail bond storefront - and one surveyor's morning stop led to uncovering eleven years of hidden bookkeeping that used the odd phrase "deferred fee" to mask ongoing transactions. How did a small-city bondsman with 400 clients a year and a spotless community reputation keep a quiet racket running for over a decade?

    In this episode, we follow the chronology from the morning Lloyd Underwood photographed the machine to Detective Terry Whitley pulling client books and files that revealed an irregular notation appearing since 2001. The episode covers the theft report, the role of the bond-printing device, the ledger entries marked "deferred fee," and the connections between Kellerton, Teller Parish, and Calvera Parish that Whitley began to trace - how did those deferred amounts persist for years without being paid?

    Person: Lloyd Underwood
    Person: Terry Whitley
    Person: Randy Sullivan
    Location: Merchant Avenue, Kellerton
    Item: bond-printing machine labeled "Teller Parish Clerk's Office"

    - The bond shop Sullivan Surety operated on Merchant Avenue since 2001 and processed about 400 clients per year.
    - The bond-printing machine was taken from the Teller Parish Clerk's Office records annex on the night of March 4, 2010, during a renovation.
    - Lloyd Underwood found and photographed the machine on a cinder block shelf in the bail bond storefront in the second week of May 2011.
    - Randy Sullivan was 53 years old at the time investigators photographed the machine and had coached youth baseball and served as a deacon at Cornerstone Baptist Church.
    - Ledger entries at Sullivan Surety contained the two-word phrase "deferred fee" starting in 2001 and carrying forward year to year with dollar figures, some over $1,000.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • The Bag That Should Not Have Been Dry: The Dellford Racket

    The Bag That Should Not Have Been Dry: The Dellford Racket
    2026/07/26
    The Bag That Should Not Have Been Dry: The Dellford Racket

    A sealed bank deposit bag, rubber-banded and perfectly dry, sat on a concrete shelf inside a septic holding tank that hadn’t been serviced in 36 months - and it contained $4,200 in banded twenties plus a laminated index card listing eleven south-ward businesses with monthly payments. How did routine park maintenance, a municipal contractor with a key to maintenance sheds, and four years of spotless inspections hide a protection racket in plain sight?

    In this episode, we trace the discovery and the pieces that linked a parks contractor to a cash-for-clean-inspections scheme: the pump-truck driver who took the photo, the deputy who opened the case, the ledger that tied eleven businesses together, and the city records that showed an improbable pattern. What exactly does the dry bag on a concrete shelf tell us about how the racket was run and who benefited?

    Person: Earl Vogel
    Person: Lloyd Weaver
    Person: Eric Powell
    Date: April 2011
    Amount: $4,200

    - The septic holding tank had not been serviced in 36 months according to city work orders.
    - Verdant Solutions LLC was awarded the Dellford parks maintenance contract in spring 2007 and by then employed roughly 22 people.
    - Eleven south-ward businesses paid between $300 and $800 per month into the scheme.
    - Charles Mott received $4,000 per month in cash deposited to a lockbox at Birch Road Storage for four years and two months.
    - The sealed bank deposit bag contained banded twenties and a laminated index card listing eleven business names with dollar amounts.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • Birdwatcher Photographs $900,000 Fraud: The Corridor Tax

    Birdwatcher Photographs $900,000 Fraud: The Corridor Tax
    2026/07/26
    Birdwatcher Photographs $900,000 Fraud: The Corridor Tax

    A middle school librarian photographing mergansers with a 500mm lens accidentally captured a man bundling a stack of envelopes in the open cargo doors of an ambulance - one of eleven photos that later became federal evidence in a $900,000 billing scheme. How did a methodical fraud, adding a $12-$30 “compliance fee” to routine transports across three hospitals, go undetected for nine years until a birdwatcher posted a photo online?

    In this episode, we follow how routine paperwork, a transport coordinator, a long‑time OIG investigator, and a birdwatcher converged to reveal a long-running billing fraud; what started as a nature outing becomes the key piece that helped answer why the scheme survived so long.

    Person: Shannon Tillman
    Event: Photograph taken at 7:19 AM on March 14
    Company: Sovereign Ambulance Services
    Scheme: Compliance fee of $12 to $30 per transfer billed to Clearfield Holdings
    Investigator: Curtis York, 12‑year OIG investigator

    - Shannon Tillman used a 500‑millimeter telephoto lens and took eleven photographs on the morning of March 14.
    - The extra “compliance fee” line item ranged from $12 to $30 per transfer on invoices layered atop legitimate transport charges.
    - Cynthia Hayes held a 40% stake in Clearfield Holdings and had 11 years of healthcare billing experience when she helped structure Sovereign’s bid.
    - Joanna Hewitt found 47 transfers billed to Clearfield Holdings with no corresponding transport record during accreditation reconciliation.
    - A Public Works keycard registered to Douglas Heff activated a gate on the third Tuesday of every month for four years, traced to a service road behind a storage facility.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • A Briefcase Left Running: The Harton Convention Racket

    A Briefcase Left Running: The Harton Convention Racket
    2026/07/26
    A Briefcase Left Running: The Harton Convention Racket

    A running engine and a dead battery: a fifteen-year-old finds a briefcase beside an idling car at 4:40 a.m., and a single impossible detail in a police report ignites a racket that funneled cash, vendors and exclusion lists through Harton’s convention system. How did a linen company, a bureau director and hotel managers turn room recommendations into predictable paydays - and who paid when rooms were quietly denied?

    In this episode, we follow the chronology from the briefcase on the Ardmore Grand loading dock to the handwritten records and bank deposits that tied local businesses and hotel staff to a scheme of preferential bookings and targeted exclusions. We track the evidence that links cash payments to recommendation power, and the complaint that began to unravel the network.

    Person: Ronald McCarthy
    Date: February 1997 (four forty a.m., second week of February 1997)
    Location: Ardmore Grand Hotel loading dock, Harton
    Person: Phil Garver
    Person: Neil Burke

    - A fifteen-year-old found an open briefcase beside an idling car at 4:40 a.m.
    - Patrol Officer Deborah Fitch arrived at 5:03 a.m. and noted the engine was running despite a claimed dead battery.
    - Handwritten records showed Norman Baker began cash payments to Phil Garver in 1991.
    - Investigators documented 43 cash deposits into Neil Burke’s accounts over 30 months, averaging $900 each, always on Fridays at different branches.
    - Investigators documented 41 targeted exclusions over 18 months while hotel vacancy rates ranged from 12% to 31%.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 分