Chambers County authorities track down suspect in $864K theft

Six-month investigation leads to arrest and extradition from New Jersey

BY KADIE TAYLOR

THE LAFAYETTE SUN

CHAMBERS COUNTY — Through the hard work and dedication of Chambers County authorities — in just six months since funds were stolen from the Chambers County Commission, a man was arrested in New Jersey for the crime.

In March of 2025, the Chambers County Commission was working to complete a construction project at the Chambers County Courthouse and Jail. Chambers County was working with a contractor and an architect — when work was completed, the contractor would email the architect — who would email a request payment from the Chambers County Engineer and County Manager with funds allotted to Chambers County through the American Rescue Plan Act Funds. Through email infiltration, $864,079.47 designated for County upgrades was stolen.

“One of the parties' systems was actually compromised, in regards to the illegitimate email that was sent with the payment instructions, which were not genuine,” said Chambers County Attorney Skip McCoy. “But from all appearances, the emails were actually from the respective parties — there was nothing that would indicate that they were illegitimate. So when that email came in for payment, the county engineer okayed it and the county manager paid it, but it was sent to a banking entity that was not the contractor's banking entity, unbeknownst to the county.”

McCoy said immediately after the county became aware of the crime, local authorities began working immediately to notify all state and federal agencies and to pursue both civil and criminal investigations.

“One of the first things that the County Commission did was retain an expert forensic IT examiner to come in to investigate how the fraudulent party was able to intercept the communications and make a determination, whether it was from the County system or one of the other party systems — we have done that — and we feel very confident that the Chambers County IT side was not compromised. [The infiltration] would have involved one or more of the other parties,” he said. “So the criminal case and the search as to who the culprit was began immediately.”

Through determined efforts, in just six months, McCoy said a criminal was identified, and he is now in Chambers County Jail.

“It was a pretty exhausting manhunt to try to find out who the person was that was orchestrating this thing, at least on the front end,” he said. “We were able to make the determination that the guy's name was Petrus Laurent, 32-year-old male, and we were able to effectuate arrest of him in New Jersey on Sept. 26, and once the arrest was made, then we had to start the process to get him extradited back to Chambers County. We actually got him back to Chambers County on Oct. 23.”

McCoy said on Oct. 28, there was a bond hearing before District Judge Terrence Graham, and Laurent was denied bail.

“At the bond hearing, which is basically he was asking to be let out on bail, we opposed that stringently as a flight risk — and Judge Brown basically ruled that he would be held with no bond in the Chambers County Jail,” he said. “He concurred with our fear that he was a flight risk — we had been pursuing that, and we're also pursuing it from a civil standpoint.

“The thing that he's charged with right now is under state law, section 13A-8-2.1, which is when there are stolen funds that are public money and that are intended for governmental operations,” he said. “That's the felony charge that has been brought against him right now, which carries a sentence of five to 30 years. We are looking at additional charges — we feel like there could be additional charges made against him, and we also feel that there could be more arrests made, because this was not a one-man operation.”

As McCoy reflected on the success of the investigation that led to the arrest of Laurent, he credited the success to the hard workers in Chambers County and their dedication to seeking justice.

“Based on this investigation that the Chambers County Sheriff's Department has led — exclusively due to the efforts of investigator Rodney Arwood and Sheriff Jeff Nelson, the culprit was apprehended because of all the efforts by Chambers County,” he said. “It was the Chambers County Sheriff's Department, especially investigator Arwood, who was on the case; that's how we were able to finally discern who this person was.”