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Two men charged with defrauding Bibb schools on computer sales

Two Bibb County businessmen appeared in federal court this afternoon, and pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding the school district of millions.

Two Bibb County businessmen appeared in federal court this afternoon, and pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding the school district of millions.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Isaac Culver, Dave Carty and their business, Progressive Consulting Technologies Inc., PCTI.

On Wednesday, the judge set $15,000 bond for each man.

They're each charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and money laundering.

The pair are accused of conspiring to sell the Bibb County school district more than $3.7 million in computers and support services that was worth less than half that.

The company was hired as program manager for a major technology upgrade for the school system in 2012.

Through wire transfers and false paperwork, the indictment says, Culver and Carty hid from the school how much they were profiting from the sale.

When school officials started to install those computers, according to Bibb school officials, they realized that the computers wouldn't work because Progressive Computing hadn't provided key components that were needed, like keyboards and monitors.

The equipment is still sitting, unused, in a Bibb school warehouse, for over three years.

Last year, the Bibb County School District filed a federal lawsuit against Culver, Carty, their former superintendent, Romain Dallemand, and others.

The district argued that Dallemand pushed the computer sale through by violating school procedures and bidding laws and deceived other school officials about what he was doing.

However, Dallemand is not named in this week's federal indictment.

According to a news release from acting U.S. Attorney Pete Peterman, Culver and Carty were arrested Wednesday morning.

They each face up to 20 years in prison and possible fines.

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