Prominent businessman’s bank records subpoenaed in lawsuit against Dallemand

The Bibb County school district has subpoenaed bank records of the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority chairman as part of the district’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit against former school Superintendent Romain Dallemand and others.

The school district wants to examine Cliffard Whitby’s Bank of America records, records associated with Whitby’s construction company, Whitby Inc., and those of Integrated Technology Consulting. That’s according to a document accompanying a motion to quash, or set aside, the subpoena filed in U.S. District Court by Integrated Technology Consulting’s attorney.

A hearing on the motion is set for Friday.

The subpoena seeks bank records for more than six years, beginning Feb. 1, 2011.

The school district’s lawsuit alleges that Dallemand; Isaac Culver III and his company, Progressive Consulting Technologies Inc.; former school technology director Tom Tourand; Comptech Computer Technologies Inc. and its president and CEO, Allen J. Stephen; and Pinnacle/CSG Inc., and its president, Cory McFarlane, participated in a series of fraudulent acts related to a 2012 technology sale to the school system.

A federal grand jury indicted Culver, Progressive Consulting Technlogies Inc., and Culver’s business partner, Dave Canty, on fraud charges last month stemming from the sale of 15,000 Ncomputing devices to the district that were delivered without the necessary components to make them functional.

Culver stepped down as chairman of the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce on the day the indictment was unsealed.

Contacted Wednesday, Whitby said he’d not been notified of the subpoena, and he said Integrated Technology Consulting is not one of his companies.

He said Whitby Inc. has been doing business in Macon for 30 years and has worked on many projects with Progressive Consulting Technologies.

“It’s an ongoing relationship,” he said.

While he said he wouldn’t jeopardize his company’s privacy, Whitby said he will address questions the school board may have about his dealings with Progressive or other companies.

“It’s all aboveboard and it’s legal,” he said. “We’re not trying to hide the ball — ... any business transaction we had with Progressive or anybody.”

He denied having any involvement in “whatever the school board is alleging Progressive has done.”

Whitby said he’s done business with Integrated Technology Consulting, a company he described as an investment firm.

Maryland state business records show that Integrated is registered as having a principal location in Elliott City, Maryland, but property assessments are sent to a Macon post office box.

Records in the Macon-Bibb County Board of Tax Assessor’s Office show two $1 quitclaim deed property transfers in 2014 between Whitby Inc. and Integrated. Integrated’s address on one of the records is listed as 1680 Broadway in Macon — the same as Whitby Inc. Whitby said he didn’t know why Integrated was listed at that address.

Kirk Watkins, the Atlanta attorney who filed the motion to quash the school board’s subpoena, declined comment Wednesday when asked about the company.

In his motion, he wrote that Integrated — like Whitby — was not served with a copy of the subpoena sent to Bank of America.

Watkins contended that the school district’s subpoena is a “fishing expedition” and doesn’t limit requested records to those related to parties in the lawsuit, according to the motion.

No allegations of wrongdoing have been made against Integrated, he said.

Further, Watkins said the school district hasn’t informed Bank of America of a protective order in the case that restricts financial records of people and entities that aren’t defendants in the suit to be for “attorneys’ eyes only.”

Also filed with the motion is a declaration by Tyrone K. Lewis, Integrated’s CEO, in which he denies that the company has had any business transactions with any of the defendants in the school system’s lawsuit or any transactions that “would have a bearing on any dispute” between the school system and the defendants.

He contended that access to the company’s complete financial account records would allow competitors to assess costs associated with Integrated’s contracts, bidding processes, supply sources and other “personal and sensitive information.”

If viewed, the records would allow a competitor to reconstruct the company’s “highly protected customer list” and a list of “favored suppliers,” Lewis said.

If the judge doesn’t quash the subpoena, Watkins asked that it be modified to cover just transactions with parties in the lawsuit or other individuals or entities established to be relevant to the case.

Any records provided should be designated for attorneys’ eyes only or another level of confidentiality, he maintained, and only be allowed to be used for the pending litigation.

Whitby has had ties to the Bibb County school system for years.

In 2009, the school system sold a middle school building on Anthony Road for $220,000 because it had no use for the school anymore.

Whitby acted as an agent for the nonprofit Central Georgia Partnership for Individual and Community Development that year when he bid on the former Ballard-Hudson Middle School.

In 2013, that building became the focal point of an ambitious neighborhood improvement program — Promise Neighborhoods. The plan called for the system to lease the building from the new owner. It was all part of a bid to win a nearly $30 million federal Promise Neighborhoods “implementation grant,” which never materialized.

Much of the commitment for the initiative — both financially and for in-kind services — was made without the prior review of the Bibb County school board.

This story was originally published July 26, 2017 at 10:28 AM with the headline "Prominent businessman’s bank records subpoenaed in lawsuit against Dallemand."