The owner of a Jacksonville-based business who moved to The Villages in 2021 is accusing one of her former employees of robbing her business and personal financial accounts of nearly $366,000.
Amanda Leigh Landon, 44, was arrested by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office deputies on Oct. 2 on multiple felony charges related to alleged thefts that date back to January 2022.
According to an arrest and booking report filed in Duval County, JSO deputies were dispatched to an insurance company in Neptune Beach on June 14 in reference to an embezzlement investigation.
Upon arrival, the former business owner told authorities that Landon had previously worked for the company and had been “stealing money from her business” while she was employed.
The owner, who sold the company and now lives in the Village of Dunedin, alleges that Landon would steal money from the business’s policyholders, deposit the money into the business’s account, and then “write herself a personal check from the business from the money she stole,” according to the report.Â
During her initial conversation with police, the victim alleged that Landon had stolen approximately $150,000.
On July 10, deputies spoke with a bank manager that had been assisting the victim with the fraud investigation. The bank manager confirmed that the victim’s personal credit card had been used for $22,902.66 in purchases that she never authorized.
The charges were made across Amazon, Instacart, Uber Eats, and Carnival Cruise Lines, among other vendors.
The victim told authorities she had never signed up for any of the services.
She went on to tell investigators that in April 2022, she deposited “$65,000 from her Edward Jones Investment account to her personal checking account” in order to “pay off credit cards and the business line of credit.”
According to the report, the victim says Landon never paid off the business line of credit, and instead, the victim had to transfer another $25,000 in June to pay off the account.
On July 24, the bank’s legal compliance team provided documentation to authorities showing that Landon had allegedly made multiple transfers from the victim’s account into her own dating back to last year.
The statements provided to authorities showed at least seven large transfers made monthly from the victim’s checking account into Landon’s personal account. All of the transfers were for over $20,000, including a transfer for $42,146.20 in September 2022.
Investigators also issued subpoenas to multiple vendors, including Home Depot and Carnival Cruise Line, among several others.
According to the report, the Home Depot Fraud Investigation Unit reported at least $8,841.54 in fraudulent charges, and Carnival Cruise Line fraud investigators reported a fraudulent purchase of a $300 cruise in July 2022. That cruise was scheduled to take place in November 2022.
According to the sheriff’s office, between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023, Landon allegedly stole $365,957 through a variety of means.
The victim says she moved from Jacksonville to The Villages recently and alleges that Landon changed the mailing address on her bank accounts. As a result, she was unaware of the fraud “until the banks started reaching out to her by phone,” according to the report.
The victim alleges she never gave Landon permission to “write checks to herself and deposit them,” nor to “ever transfer money out of her personal checking account” into Landon’s bank account.
According to Duval County court records, Landon was released on bond on Oct. 5.
During her arraignment on Oct. 25, Landon offered a plea of not guilty to two counts of grand theft, one count of organized fraud, one count of money laundering, and one count of criminal use of personal identification information.
Landon is next scheduled to appear in court for pretrial on Nov. 20, according to Duval County court records.
