Appeal denied for man linked to ‘massive’ computer-deal fraud to dupe Bibb schools
A federal appeals court this week upheld the conviction and sentence of Dave L. Carty, a Macon businessman who was imprisoned a year ago after he was found guilty of wire fraud for his role in his company’s deceptive $3.7-million deal to sell computing devices to Bibb County’s public schools.
Carty, who is now serving a 50-month prison term, went on trial early last year and was acquitted of all but one of the 13 wire fraud charges against him. He was also found not guilty of mail fraud, conspiracy for wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy.
The case against him and his business partner, Isaac J. Culver III, centered on a scheme to hide Progressive’s hand in a computing-device deal with Bibb schools eight years ago during the turbulent tenure of then-superintendent Romain Dallemand.
Although Progressive had won a contract to install computers in the county’s public schools, it was not authorized to sell devices to the school system.
The lone wire-fraud charge that Carty was convicted of was for sending an email to an Ohio firm that prosecutors said was used as a conduit to make the improper sale appear legitimate. Carty was accused of doctoring invoices to make it seem the Ohio firm had been the seller in the $3.7-million deal. But Progressive was the vendor. It paid $1.7 million to acquire the devices.
Carty, 50, appealed on grounds that certain invoices from his company, Progressive Consulting Technologies, should not have been admitted at his trial.
He had also contended, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit noted Monday in its 19-page summation and denial, that at sentencing U.S. District Court Judge Marc T. Treadwell “failed to make independent or specific findings regarding (the school system’s) loss amount.”
Carty also claimed the wrong factors were used to calculate the $1.9 million in restitution he has been ordered to help pay.
The appeals court concluded the trial judge had not erred and denied all three arguments in Carty’s consolidated appeal.
“We are disappointed with the decision and are reviewing it carefully to determine whether there are grounds to seek the appellate court’s reconsideration,” Laura Hogue, an attorney who represents Carty, said in a text message Tuesday. “We’ve fought hard for Dave’s freedom and remain firmly in his corner.”
Culver, the president and CEO of Progressive who was Carty’s business associate, was found guilty of multiple wire-fraud charges as well as charges that included conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.
After his conviction at trial in late 2018, Culver was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison.
At the conclusion of Carty’s trial a few months later, Treadwell, who oversaw both cases, declared the Progressive scheme — which saddled Bibb schools with thousands of computing devices it never used — a “sophisticated, massive fraud on the children and taxpayers of Bibb County.”
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 1:22 PM.