MILTON, Fla. — The Milton Police Department has arrested Mohamed Bakayoko, 22, of Richardson, Texas, in connection with a large-scale fraud scheme resulting in the theft of over $850,000 from the Santa Rosa County Clerk of Court & Comptroller’s Office.
Bakayoko faces a first-degree felony grand theft charge, which carries a possible prison sentence of up to 30 years.
Investigators discovered that Bakayoko received funds obtained through a business email compromise scam. Cybercriminals impersonated a legitimate vendor by compromising an email account, tricking Clerk of Court staff into changing the vendor’s banking details. Consequently, $852,983.06 was transferred into a fraudulent account.
Shortly after the transfer, the stolen funds were quickly dispersed across multiple banks and withdrawn as large sums of cash. Once the fraud was detected, authorities froze the accounts and managed to recover approximately $650,000.
Digital forensic work traced the stolen money directly to Bakayoko. Milton Police Detective Samuel Ennis secured an arrest warrant, and with FBI assistance, Bakayoko was arrested without incident.
He is currently held in Santa Rosa County on a $100,000 bond.
This case highlights the coordinated efforts of the Milton Police Department, the Office of the State Attorney, and the FBI.
