A Plantation Key man was charged today with a scheme to
defraud a company out of $3 million worth of computer equipment. During the
course of his fraud scheme, he was able to obtain $120,000 worth of computer
equipment without paying for it.
Sheriff’s Detective Bob Dosh was contacted in January by the
Chief Executive Officer of a Tennessee company called EnfoPoint Solutions. He
said a man named Cole Peacock, purporting to be the CEO of a company called
Data Point Systems, with locations in Miami and in the Keys, called him in
November about purchasing a large amount of computer equipment. Peacock told
him he was starting an internet hub in Monroe County and needed the equipment
to set it up.
He said Peacock claimed to have the financing approved for
the purchase from his “corporate members”; he allegedly mislead the victim,
telling him his company had board members, a tech department, an accounts
payable department and support staff. The two men talked about having an
engineering team from EnfoPoint Solutions come to Peacock’s business address in
Tavernier to do a demonstration and to assist in setting up equipment at his
company. Peacock said he would pay with a wire transfer after delivery of the
equipment.
The victim said he agreed to send some of the computer
equipment to the Miami address and he made arrangements to send a team of
employees to Tavernier to meet with employees of Peacock’s business after the equipment
arrived. He said he sent $120,000 worth of equipment to the Miami address on
December 2nd. He said after the equipment was shipped, all communication
stopped between them and he could no longer reach Peacock.
Detective Dosh enlisted the assistance of an agent from the
Department of Homeland Security; the agent went to the location in Miami where
Peacock said he had a business office. He found that Peacock rented a storage
locker at that location where he periodically has packages shipped. He
confirmed a package containing computer equipment was shipped to that location
in December and was picked up by Peacock.
At the time of this investigation, Peacock was on probation
for a previous case from 2013 in which he was convicted on charges related to
computer fraud; terms of that probation included no access to or business
activity involving a computer and no travel outside of Monroe County except for
medical purposes. Multiple warrants were obtained for violation of his
probation and on May 17th he was arrested on those warrants. He has
remained in jail since that time. Today, he was charged with grand theft and fraud,
two first degree felony crimes. Bond on the charges is $100,000. The stolen
computer equipment has not yet been recovered.
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