In January 2024 Denise Ruiz, who lives in New York but owned a lot on Sloganeer Trail in Palm Coast. She wanted to pay her property taxes. Local officials told her she no longer owned the property. It had been sold, and the deed transferred. Ruiz had no idea.
The Realtor who sold it told her he thought he’d been dealing with Ruiz all along, by email and texts. He had not. The identification provided for closing documents was of a white woman. Ruiz is Black. Ruiz had been swindled.
Today, after an investigation of more than two years, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of Cheryl Annette Jefferson, 63, on a Flagler County warrant in DeFuniak Springs on a charge of an organized scheme to defraud over $50,000. A bank account Jefferson controlled and that accumulated funds from allegedly fraudulent transactions in Flagler County, Cape Coral, and Greene County, Georgia, totaled $421,995.
Jefferson, who lives at 1792 Kingsmill Drive in Bartow, in Polk County, was arrested Friday by DeFuniak Springs police, booked and released the next day after posting bail on a $100,000 bond.
She alone was arrested. It isn’t clear if Jefferson allegedly acted alone. It is a murky story with numerous unanswered questions and the unexplained alleged interactions with Jefferson of at least one member of the Florida Georgia Line band, who supposedly wanted to build a music studio in Nashville and sought Jefferson’s help.
It is still unclear from the investigative report and the release the Sheriff’s Office issued today whether the person–or persons–Jefferson interacted with through social messaging apps were, in fact, band members or musicians, if she made them up, or if they were fictitious people using the musicians’ names.
Back in January 2024 and after tracing to her the Regions Bank account where proceeds from the S-section lot sale were wired, Detective John Castanheira traveled to Bartow and spoke to Jefferson–their first conversation was at a Walmart–who claimed she did not look at the origin of checks being deposited in her account. She told the detective she was working with friends she would not identify until she’d spoken with them first. She subsequently called the detective a week later to tell him that her business partners were working with a couple from Asia. She provided numbers and names, none of which the detective could verify.
In April, the detective got a call in reference to a property at 103 Whippoorwill Drive that Leo Diguilio, a resident of Bradley Beach in New Jersey, had bought free and clear in 2014–for $51,000, according to property records–and that allegedly had been fraudulently sold. Diguilio had asked his cousin John, who lives in Ormond Beach, to drive by the property once Leo thought of building a house there. When John did, he saw that a house had already been built by LGI Homes. Property records pointed to a 2023 sale to LGI Homes. “Leo was finally able to get in touch with a Representative from LGI Homes which is based in Texas to rectify the issue,” the investigation report states.
The detective learned that proceeds from the apparently fraudulent sale went to the same Regions Bank account in Jefferson’s name. From there, Jefferson wrote checks to herself in a Bank of America account. Several checks were also made payable to Connie Fitzjarrell in a Navy Federal Credit Union account. Examining that trail, the detective found wires for cryptocurrency.
Further investigation revealed similar transactions that had prompted two separate cases filed with the Cape Coral Police Department, one case reported to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia, and a civil case reported in Pueblo County, Colorado, also involving a fraudulent lot sale. “I was able to confirm there were four (4) other reports involving lot sales where Cheryl Jefferson was the beneficiary of the funds for those transactions,” the detective reported.
Another detective found that Jefferson owned a cryptocurrency account on a platform owned by Gemini Crypto, sending money to an account owned by two Nigerian men.
Last Oct. 28, Sgt. Gabe Fuentes and Detective Castanheira returned to Bartow for a second interview with Jefferson, who invited them into her home. She told them of meeting two people out of the blue at a concert, talking about investments, and then agreeing to help them finance a music studio in Nashville. She identified one of the men as “Albert Ong.” She said she’d agreed to open a bank account in her name for one of the two new friends. She claimed “she didn’t think anything of the funds being transferred into the account because she believed it was from investors so she never questioned it,” the investigation states.
After some resistance, she alleged that the person with whom she’d initially discussed starting the investment venture–the person for whom she opened the account–was Brian Kelley, one of the band members of Florida Georgia Line. She was sure it was him, she told the detectives, because she claimed to have interacted with him at concerts, and even claimed she “was actively having a conversation with this person as we were on scene,” the detective reported.
It is still unclear from the investigative report whether the Brian Kelley Jefferson was referring to was the Brian Kelley or a fictitious person Jefferson was using as a cover. There is no indication that the investigators attempted to contact the band member or his colleagues for verification.
The detective reports that he “confiscated” the phone and turned it over to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for analysis. “A review of that cellphone revealed text messages between Jefferson and another individual, Chase Rice, which is the name of another famous country music singer and songwriter,” a sheriff’s release states. “Detectives have determined these text messages show Jefferson’s continued participation in receiving money and moving it to cryptocurrency.”
The investigative report does not say where the money was coming from. It notes that after a review of the text messages by a different detective, Castanheira having been reassigned, the detective “did not observe anything of evidentiary value regarding these cases.” It continues: “There were several text messages as recent as October 2025 showing a conversation with another person identified as Chase Rice who is another Country singer Artist. The text messages articulate that Cheryl is still involved in receiving money and moving it to cryptocurrency.”
Who is sending the money to her is not clear.
“Crime knows no borders, and it doesn’t stop at the Florida Georgia Line. This criminal may claim she has some high-profile friends, but I don’t see her friends getting her out of the jam she’s put herself in,” Sheriff Rick Staly is quoted as saying in the release.
Atwp says
I suppose the white crook is free. Ruiz lost her lot, the realtor should be held responsible. People stealing another person’s property should be a thing of the past. Years ago it was common for whites to take property from a person of color. Watched a program recently, it was about people that were not white, they had a lot of land the narrator said, of course a white man wanted the land. They went to court according to the program the court said a person that isn’t white should not own land, the white man got the land. Sad but no doubt true. The white man took a lot of land from dark colored people years ago. The program had some familiar themes to me. I thank God for deadly natural disasters that destroy land that was stole.
Greg says
Careful of the comment you just made about stolen land. People forget about the millions of acres of land stolen from the American Indians by the feds.
Gina says
Atwp: heard El Nino is going to be a bad one this year!
TR says
Just when I thought you being racist was the only bad part about you. Now you like when deadly natural disasters happen? I know you’re not just talking about the land being destroyed because you used the word deadly which means people died during the natural disaster. Nice to know you don’t care if another human being lives or dies. I feel really sorry for you and your racist thinking and hopefully it will end soon. Maybe you should have named the show you watched so others can watch it as well. Care to supply the name of the show? I for one will wait, but won’t hold my breath on it.
You know racism only lives on when people like you are alive. Good luck.
Atwp says
A person said hurricanes follow the path of slave ships, don’t know how true the statement is but it does sound good. Slaves were destroyed and hurricanes destroy stolen lands. Notice the landfall of many hurricanes, the post lynching slave states, the demonic south.
JimboXYZ says
Not sure what this means to point out ?
“The identification provided for closing documents was of a white woman. Ruiz is Black. Ruiz had been swindled.”
Sounds more like a Nigerian scam that involved multiple races of human beings ?
Per Sheriff Staly’s release:
“In addition to these deposits, detectives also determined that Jefferson wired funds from the account
to her Coinbase account for cryptocurrency exchange. Jefferson then transferred cryptocurrency to
two accounts, each owned separately by Nigerian men.”
That would probably be the international money launder phase of wired transactions ? Anyone recall the Nigerian email scams of the last 25 years ? Some deceased trainperson in Nigeria, Africa that left millions that the scammers were willing to share a cut of the proceeds for complicit involvement for providing a bank account ?
https://www.flaglersheriff.com/cmsfiles/2026-71-Florida-Woman-Arrested-for-Fraud-After-Selling-Multiple-Properties-She-Did-Not-Own.pdf
Does this crime have the stench/smell of the Minnesota Somali fraud & abuse on a smaller scale ? How far removed from at least conceptual similarity, is it from the Ilhan Omar investigation(s) that are getting underway. Maybe in a year(s) we read breaking news that Ilhan Omar & others are arrested ? DOGE was a good thing at the front end of Trump 2025 ?
https://patriotfetch.com/2026/03/ilhan-omar-welfare-fraud-scandal/
Tired of it says
“The Trump administration has justified its ongoing immigration crackdown in Minnesota by citing a need to curb fraud and pointing to a widening scandal involving members of the Somali American community. Yet prosecutors say the mastermind of the state’s biggest fraud scheme to date was not Somali but a White woman — 45-year-old Aimee Bock. “
JimboXYZ says
Trump administration is quite justified in going after the DEI fraud & abuse that preceded Jan 2025. When I read the Atwp comments on it being racist. This was a case of the black person(s) not paying their taxes. Someone acquiring property for failure to pay taxes & anything else as a relative bankruptcy, selling shore, etc.. has always been a land grab of it’s own circumstances. There are 2 options, one either sells their land or the government does. The black woman here was delinquent for paying her taxes. Just a matter of time before the State of FL/Flagler County.City of Palm Coast was going to seek a sell off for delinquent property taxes. That process is no different than leasing or buying a car & failure to make payments, then complaining about someone repossessing the vehicle. Even I don’t know of the process from personal experience , but when my property taxes are due, they get paid to Flagler County. We simply don’t know Ruiz’s arrears for tax delinquency, we do know it goes back at least 2 years when this all started that another saw an opening. The Government, devoid of any criminal arrests/cases has to assume 2 years ago that this transaction was a legitimate real estate transaction ? My point is there is no racism here for the race card to be played. Id somehow, a white woman was in the same situation, the same individuals that pulled off the fraud, might just have easily taken a white person’s property for a property tax delinquency.
And I don’t hear Atwp commenting on the fact that the bank accounts involved were Nigerian males ? That wouldn’t preclude there being whites in Nigeria, but the statistical probability that the blacks in Nigeria are the one’s that ended up with the money for the sale of a property in Palm Coast, FL ? And guess where the slavery all started centuries ago for the current state of it all ? Nigeria is middle of Africa’s Slave Coast/Slave Belt for any & everything slavery that has existed dating back to colonization of Caribbean Islands & North America. Facts & history are what they are ancient or modern day world.
https://www.thelandgeek.com/blog-how-to-buy-tax-delinquent-land/
Beth says
The same person notarized both Palm Coast deeds. Might want to look at that person. One notarized in Alachua County, and the other in Pasco…
Skibum says
There are a couple of very easy, common sense safeguards that people can take to protect themselves from this type of crime.
1) Whether or not you own property, freeze your credit with all 3 credit reporting agencies. This is essential to protect oneself from identity theft. In the event that you want to open a new account, you can unfreeze your credit for a day or other period of time to allow a credit check, then freeze it again to keep crooks from stealing your identity and trying to open fraudulent accounts or conduct transactions in your name.
2) If you are a property owner here in Flagler County, you can sign up on a registry to notify you if anyone attempts to make any changes to your property title.
I have done both, and can sleep better at night! Here is a link to a short video from Clark Howard on this subject:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/opvD4uN3P6E
Laurel says
Theft is theft, no matter the color of the person.
Anyway, it’s hard to believe that a realtor would sell a property through emails. At the very least, the realtor should have researched the owner, picked up the phone and called her. Creating an email account is easy. No proof of ownership required? The realtor is just as responsible as the thief, and why would a builder start building on a land that does not have a clear title? That’s just stupid! The land should be returned to the real owner, and he should have to choice to keep the house for free, or have the builder remove the house at the builder’s expense. Also, any buyer should go to a proper title company and pay for a clear title. To not do that is irresponsible.
The crypto coins is for money laundering. I hope this Jefferson person is charged up the …
Skibum says
I agree completely, but it is not only the realtor who bears responsibility. The title company(s) should be in even more legal jeopardy and would be held liable as well if sued by the legitimate property owners. Although the title company(s) probably would claim they were also victims of that fraud, they clearly failed in doing their due diligence by allowing a fraudulent real estate purchase to pass through their fingers and get finalized.
Laurel says
Skibum: I agree with you too. We recently closed on a property, and used one of the oldest title companies in the area. They still search the old way, and the new ways. It was related to us that many title companies today, rely on overseas companies to do the work!
Our properties also use the system you mentioned to protect the properties through the County Property Appraiser. We had also frozen our credits, forgot about it, and had issues when trying to upgrade a phone! Well, it got straightened out easy enough, and it’s worth the effort.
I’m not a fan of thieves! I won’t say here what I think of them, but it’s not much!
Laurel says
…and he should have THE choice…
I gotta do at least one of these a day.
Atwp says
Greg I am careful. Just like the feds stole land from the Indians no doubt they stole land from my African American People.The only people that is suppose to have anything of financial value is the white folks. People of color isn’t suppose to have anything of value according to this society.
TR says
More BS. Stop thinking you’re right because your wrong. Perfect example to prove your wrong. How about Obama, he has a lot more than a lot of white people. Or look at a lot of the famous athletes and actors that are black that get paid more then some white people. They also have a lot more than a lot of white people overall. So your racism doesn’t hold any value. The bottom line is there are plenty of people regardless of their skin color that have a lot more than the opposite colored person. Now the people that are less fortunate are that way for many reasons and it has nothing to do with the color of their skin.
Still haven’t given us the name of the show you watch, wonder why?
JimboXYZ says
Exactly, pay me like a lot of black, brown, Asian folks that have way more than I’ll ever have an opportunity to actually earn, much less defraud the Government out of. I’d still have the same position, there’s a difference between earning it with productive work rather than outright fraud & abuse. And it doesn’t end with skin color, pay me what a lot of women & LGBTQ have been compensated for being in the Biden-Harris layer & short list of DEI that was created & morphed from Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action. I had an entire career of that BS from 1985-present. The winners that were picked ahead of anyone that were the losers of the social equality experiment, just wish those people would STFU & thank the rest of us for playing the game as parting contestants. I know what my lot is in life for playing by a set of rules that made sure I was not going to have any better than the sacrifices that my parents & I’ve made along the way. I’ll say it, I’ve had more whites preclude me from a better life than any other race. And I’m supposed to be one of them. May look like one of them, but one will find out real fast, when there’s money involved, blood lineage relation, that one was never really one of them. All DEI accomplished was that diversity existed in the fraud & abuse. End of the day, fraud & abuse is a crime, doesn’t really matter which skin color did it to you, the results are the same, the same winners & losers for the game.
JimboXYZ says
Here’s my advice for anyone that ever mortgaged a property. Pay the mortgage in accordance to the mortgage agreement contract. Pay the HOA & any insurances. And stay on top of the bank accounts for those payments to ensure the money was transferred accordingly. A bank will foreclose for failure to pay the insurance, an HOA will put liens on that property. All of that is on the buyer of the property. As for the taxes paid, the county will post that record of financial responsibility. At least one has that pdf that is downloadable for their records.
And if you don’t pay the taxes, it behooves one to stay on top of liens against property, the notices that are mailed for any legal land grab. Because those that are owed are coming to get that money, to them the home isn’t a dream house, it’s something they can flip and get at least their money out of. They don’t care if you live there or not, how many children you have, eviction, foreclosure, resale is going to be in your future for default. Doesn’t matter your skin color, your religion, at the end of the day, any of us are all black & white digital numbers on the internet for a bank account, we all are green people. That green back dollar bill doesn’t discern who’s bank account of wallet it’s in, the history of mankind. It exists to pay a bill to someone that signed a contract to honor.
See that’s what Covid ushered in. BLM Summer 2020 ushered in, DEI & Biden-Harris era ushered in. When FL had it’s relative insurance crisis, premiums were 3-5X higher than normal. Property values doubled plus since & the banks wasted no time foreclosing on anyone that wasn’t pacing Bidenomics & Inflation. Why ? Because if a bank can foreclose and double what they mortgaged the property for, those greedy gougers see +/- $ 100K profit to pay themselves raises, to be employee of the month/year. Connect those dots. Those folks aren’t on your side either. They deal in real estate & cars for loans, that’s what they do, how they make their money. The only person in the mirror is a person of their own race that was the victim of financial hardships that showed up with Biden-Harris on steroids. That’s not saying it didn’t exist before, Bush-Obama transition was the same collapse.
Watched a video the other day about that. Illegal drug money & that laundered cash ? That was the hard currency that floated the banks from the Bush collapse and the bailout economy that was created. We’ve been paying for that. I saw it in Miami, seeing it again in Palm Coast only the real estate industry hasn’t collapsed yet like it did back then. I saw too many projects run out of money in Miami, hat’s the lie of Biden’s soft landing was record setting inflation. Bidenomics was a cancer & is still out of control. We went from saving the human race from Covid, what the population has herd immunity for. And back to normal is every war going on right now, $ 4/gallon gasoline. Verge of nuclear capable & WW3. Anyone thinking it gets better is a fool of the highest order. DEI & racism, exists for a reason. At the individual level some hold up children as human shields as their family. Well that cancer grew too. Every corporation still has it’s layers of nepotism & cronyism. All those folks are related by blood somehow. They just move to difference regions to hide the nepotism/cronyism. Aunts Uncles, Cousins they all are the same DNA. And the growth is just a blanket word of terminology to mask & gide what really is going on, the non-transparency of it all. Why does anyone think LinkedIn is a tool of 1sts => 3rds, the network of nepotism & cr0onyism, that morphed into DEI layers as a sub group. Just in my own residential I had to learn, to see who was related to the next neighbor separated by property lines. My own neighborhood is an incestuous pool of families. And I’d be a fool to think that when it comes down to money, that there is a Kumbaya of feel good sense of sharing for any unity. Every race has exhibited that unity, that is until there is no external force to defeat. Ultimately the internal becomes a relative cannibalism. That is they turn on each other. Politics, some have their roles, then are the sacrificial roles for the bigger cause. Republican, Democrat, same difference, the only reason they ever align is a common interest and the pot of gold they either share collusively or compete for. There’s a reason Biden was back into the Ukraine, the war was one reason, but it’s also where any wealth Hunter Biden has had started with Burisma.