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Last updated on Wednesday, March 19, 2014
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Federal investigators have not found the nearly quarter of a million dollars that was Justin Wykoff’s share in what authorities claim was a nearly three-year conspiracy to embezzle taxpayer money.
Wykoff, of Bedford and the former city of Bloomington project manager, appeared in federal court Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve DeBrota argued Wykoff should be held without bail because of the missing money saying Wykoff knows where the missing money is.
Wykoff is facing 24 counts of embezzlement by converting governmental funds for his own use and one count of conspiracy to commit a federal crime.
But the U.S. District Court Judge allowed Wykoff to post bond, contingent upon the removal of firearms from his girlfriend's apartment, where he will reside. The judge also ruled that a hypothetical stash of money was unlikely to make Wykoff a flight risk.
Once he is released, probation officers will monitor Wykoff with a GPS device.
The judge ordered Wykoff is prohibited from speaking to employees with the city, co-defendants Roger and Zachary Hardin or any contractors that perform work in Bloomington, because any one of them might become a witness at trial.
Roger Hardin of Bedford remains in federal detention because he is on parole after serving prison time for burglary and drug convictions in Lawrence County and because investigators say he tried to conceal his involvement in this new crime.
51-year-old Hardin and his 25-year-old son, Zachary Hardin, each are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit a federal crime. The son, who has no criminal record, was released from custody after a court hearing Thursday.
Federal agents arrested all three men early Thursday and charged them with a plot overcharging the city for concrete work, some of it not even down by the men's Reliable Concrete Co., and then splitting the cash among themselves.
Court records indicate Wykoff has hired Martinsville attorneys John Boren and Glen Koch to represent him. Federal public defenders, Steven Allen and Sam Ansell, were approved Monday for the Hardins.
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