Case status still big ? in theft of E. Rivers PTA funds

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It has been more than seven months now—spanning two school years—since the theft of E. Rivers ElementaryPTA and Foundation funds by a Buckhead parent, bank officer and PTA presidentfirst became news. There still is no indictment in the case and no indicationwhen or if there will be one.

The encouraging news isthat Zone 2 Community Prosecutor Tiffany Harlow, of the Fulton County DistrictAttorney’s Office, is now in the process of reviewing the files she receivedfrom the detectives in the Atlanta Police Departments Major Crimes Major FraudUnit. 
To update our readers onthe case, here are some of the facts as they have unfolded:

Marie Arjomand photo at
time of her arrest in April

• Last March, news storiesappeared about major amounts of funds—meant to go to the E. Rivers ParentTeachers Association and the school’s Foundation to support extra-curricular studentprograms—that had been diverted by former PTA president Marie Arjomand to a bankaccount to which only she had access.
• The bank account wasopened by Arjomand at the Signature Bank in Sandy Springs, where she was anemployee and officer. The account application included the forged names of atleast two other officers of the E. Rivers PTA, one being the PTA’s treasurer,Shane Lord.
• Although it stillremains unclear exactly how much money was diverted by Arjomand from the PTAand Foundation, estimates have ranged from $54,000 to well over $100,000.
• The case has beeninvestigated by the Atlanta Police Department and the APD arrested Arjomand inApril after turning over the case to the Fulton DA for prosecution. Arjomandgot out of jail immediately on a signature bond.
• In what many consider anadmission of guilt, Arjomand reportedly has repaid at least a portion of thefunds she is accused of diverting from the PTA and Foundation.
• In the early summer, thecase was kicked back to the APD for further investigation by Fulton CountyDistrict Attorney Paul Howard because, Howard said, the APD investigator hadonly talked to one person—Arjomand.
• Shane Lord, one of thekey persons whose name was forged on the bank account documents, has never beeninterviewed by either the APD or the Fulton DA’s staff to date.
• For months now, somemembers of the PTA, who were involved with discovering and reporting the theftsin the first place, have refused to talk about the investigation and, in fact,have tried to squelch any discussion of the crimes.

Zone 2 Community Prosecutor
Tiffany Harlow

 Only BuckheadView, amongthe local media, continues to pursue a resolution to the investigation andpossible prosecution of the case—trying to keep it from becoming a cold case.
Harlow said this type ofcase would normally be handled in the white collar crime section of the DA’soffice. However, “I have taken an interest in the situation” and she now hasbecome involved in determining if there will be an indictment or not.
“We are not going toindict until we are actually sure” about the elements of the case and theproper course of action, Harlow told BuckheadView this week.  She is working with the person in charge ofthe white collar crime section within the DA’s office in evaluating thematerials presented by the APD, which she received about three or four weeksago.
Harlow told BuckheadViewthis week this is a case that impacts the Buckhead community and there is agood deal of community interest in it. As she attends community meetings she hasoften been asked questions about the case, including many from BuckheadView.
She said this is acomplex case with a lot of investigation reports involving statements frompeople involved with the PTA and school administration, information from anaudit of the bank and the account that was opened there, and it involves a lotof numbers, not all of which apparently match up or add up.

Fulton DA Paul Howard

Asked if there had beenadditional investigation work done by the APD after the DA’s office initiallykicked the case back to them because of insufficient investigation, Harlowresponded, “A little more.” 
DA Howard was questionedby BuckheadView about the case July 11 when he was presiding over theintroduction of Harlow as the new Zone 2 Community Prosecutor during a event ather Buckhead office on Grandview Avenue.
At that time, Howardsaid his office had originally charged Arjomand but he discovered that “therewas apparently more to the case than was indicated on the (APD) investigator’sreport.”
Howard toldBuckheadView, “We heard from a number of people regarding additional aspects tothe case and discovered that the investigator had only interviewed the womanwho committed the crime and had not done a thorough investigation of the case.”
BuckheadView told Howardof the situation of Shane Lord, an attorney who was the treasurer of the PTAduring the time the theft of funds took place and who had his name forged ondocuments to open the account at Signature Bank in Sandy Springs where Arjomanddeposited the funds. Lord has never been contacted or interviewed by theAtlanta Police investigator.

Marie Arjomand in photo taken when
she was an officer of Signature Bank

Arjomand was an officerof Signature Bank and was the agent of record for the bank’s holding company,Signature Bankcorp. The account was opened in the name of the E. Rivers PTA,but Arjomand was the only person authorized to withdraw funds from the account.
Arjomand did not takethe funds (estimates range from $54,000 to over $100,000 over a period of threeyears) out of the PTA’s legitimate bank account at Bank of America. Shepersonally collected the funds from individuals and organizations who pledgedthe money to the PTA and deposited those funds in the Signature Bank accountrather than the PTA’s Bank of America account, according to statements by Lord,former presidents of the PTA and police documents. 
Howard said in July theLord situation is exactly the type of information his office had received thatmade him kick the case back to the APD for “further, proper and thoroughinvestigation.”
However, BuckheadViewcontacted Lord on Wednesday and asked if he had yet been interviewed by eitherthe APD or the DA’s staff. Lord said he had not been contacted by anyone fromeither agency.

Shane Lord

Jenny Nix, another ofthe PTA officers who had her named forged on the bank account by Arjomand, wentto the APD on her own and made a written statement that Marie Arjomand hadforged her name on the document that allowed her to open a PTA account atSignature bank.
“I also gave them a copyof the check ($500) that I had written to Lions Pride that she depositeddirectly in Signature Bank as well,” Nix said in an email in June. She said shegave the statement to Sgt. D. M. Ricks and also met Sgt. Cooper, who was theinitial lead investigator on the case at APD. 
Nix wrote that theofficers told her the statement would allow them to file forgery chargesagainst Arjomand.  Forgery is a felony inGeorgia and can carry a 1-10 year prison sentence.
Lord told BuckheadView in late June that Nix told him to go to APD and give astatement, “but I was then told by the PTA to wait until I was contacted byAPD.”

It is another school year at Buckhead's E. Rivers Elementary 

BuckheadVierw asked Harlowthis week if she knew if Arjomand still lived in the Peachtree Hillsneighborhood near the school. Harlow said she did not know. Harlow said theywould only become concerned about where Arjomand is living if and when anindictment is handed down.
Harlow referredBuckheadView to the APD for information about that and any questions regardingthe extent of the investigation.
Harlow made it clearthat it is not the purview of the DA’s office to conduct the investigation in acase like this. It is the job of her office to determine if there is enoughevidence and reason to indict the individual for a crime and, if so, toprosecute the individual. Stay tuned.