Battle Creek Police have arrested four men in connection to a fraud investigation.

Police say the arrests stem from a meeting at the Lakeview Square Mall Thursday night.

We’re told a 20-year-old used a counterfeit $100 bill to buy shoes from a boy he had met online.

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A friend of the boy saw the same shoes on Facebook, set up a meeting Friday at the mall, and alerted police.

They arrested four men who came to that meeting.

Police found the boy’s shoes in their car, as well as marijuana and crack cocaine.

Police are still searching for the man who used the counterfeit money.

An eight month investigation concluded with the arrest of the former German Township Clerk on numerous fraud and forgery charges.

The Indiana State Police Organized Crime and Corruption Unit and the Indiana State Board of Accounts began a joint investigation in August 2015 on 45 year old Virginia Massey of Evansville after an audit was conducted on the German Township accounting records. It was believed that Massey had fraudulently submitted claim forms for mileage reimbursement from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2014 without supporting documentation. The checks totaled $12,450.71.

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Investigators found that mileage documentation provided by Massey for 2010 and 2013 were identical with the exception of two entries, with numerous entries made during 2010 for visits to financial institutions and the City-County Building on weekends when the facilities were closed. A total of 145 trips to financial institutions were documented within the documentation provided by Massey, while only 9 trips coincided with actual financial transactions. Additionally, for every mileage entry during 2010 and 2012-2014, there was a 15 mile variance between the ending odometer reading on the previous trip and the beginning odometer reading for the next recorded trip. Each entry made within the 2011 log revealed a 10 mile variance between trips.

Massey was arrested at 6:10 p.m. Tuesday, the Indiana State Police served the arrest warrant on Massey at her Evansville address on charges of forgery, a Class C felony, forgery, a Level 6 felony, theft, a Class D felony, theft, a Level 6 felony, official misconduct, a Class D felony, official misconduct, a Level 6 felony. She was arrested without incident and lodged in the Vanderburgh County Jail.

Investigating Agencies: Indiana State Police – Organized Crime and Corruption Unit, Indiana State Board of Accounts

Minnesota authorities alerted Sioux Falls police about a drug suspect they believe was in town and he was arrested yesterday driving a car.

Officer Sam Clemens says 32-year-old Matthew Lee Krause is also accused of making meth in a one-pot at an apartment on South Spring Avenue.  The Sioux Falls Area Drug taskforce was the lead agency in the case.

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Clemens says a drug dog was brought in for the car and officers found some pills.  Krause borrowed the car from the woman he was staying with on South Spring.  She has not been charged.

Krause is charged wih manufacturing meth and violating a drug-free zone near a daycare center.

Clemens says most meth-makers favor the one-pot method because it’s harder now to get large quantities of ingredients.  He says the one-pot doesn’t produce as much odor making it a favorite of producers holed-up in apartments.

Shawn Glen Blake, 40, a state prison inmate serving 14 years on a 2010 conviction for indecency with a child, Thursday was in the Gregg County Jail on a local warrant accusing him in two new child assault charges.

Assistant District Attorney Madison Hood said Blake is scheduled for formal arraignment April 1 on charges of indecency with a child by sexual contact and aggravated sexual assault of a child.

She said the respective second- and first-degree felonies occurred in Gregg County in 2005. The crime was investigated by the Gregg County Sheriff’s Department, indicating it happened in an unincorporated part of the county.

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Hood said the girl in that case was younger than 14 years old at the time.

The child indecency charge carries a penalty upon conviction of two to 20 years. The sexual assault charge can bring from five to 99 years or life in prison upon conviction.

A Perry County couple who owned several trucking companies has been convicted of defrauding and extorting their customers.

On March 18, 2016, a federal jury in London rendered a guilty verdict convicting 49 year-old Elliott Campbell and his wife, Melinda, age 39, of charges related to wire fraud and extortion. Elliott Campbell was convicted of six counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit extortion. Melinda Campbell was found guilty of five counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit extortion. The jury rendered its verdict after two days of deliberation, following three days of trial.

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The evidence at trial established that, from 2010 until 2012, the Campbells operated trucking companies and contracted with shipping brokers throughout the country to transport cargo freight. According to the evidence, the Campbells induced shipping brokers to enter into contracts with special conditions, which stipulated that payment would occur after delivery. Once the pair obtained the cargo freight, however, they failed to fulfill the specified conditions of delivery and then held the cargo hostage, by demanding payment prior to delivery. In response to complaints from shipping brokers, the Campbells created new companies and used false names, in order to continue their fraudulent scheme.

Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Howard Marshall, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Thomas J. Ullom, Regional Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, jointly announced the conviction.

The Campbells are scheduled to be sentenced on June 14, 2016. They face a maximum of 20 years on each wire fraud count, and for the extortion offense. They face a maximum of five years for the wire fraud conspiracy. However, any sentence would be imposed only after the Court has considered the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the applicable statutes.

Police say a man stole a collection jar and the table it was sitting on outside of a Lexington Walmart.

It happened late Thursday afternoon at the North Park store. A man was collecting donations for the Veteran Outreach Program when a man pulled away the donation jar and the table it was attached to.

Officers say he threw both items into the back of his red truck and drove off. The man collecting donations was hurt trying to catch the crook.

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“He was holding the table and they drug him clear across the parking lot there.  But the jug is bolted down, you know what I mean?  So they had to take the table and all and they threw that in the back of the pickup,” the victim’s daughter told LEX 18.