APD investigating AOK sale
Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 31, 2013
Andalusia Police confirmed Tuesday that there is an ongoing investigation into what happened to the proceeds from the 2012 sale of the former Coca-Cola building by the local non-profit Acts of Kindness Inc.
Lt. Paul Dean stopped short of calling it a criminal investigation.
“I can say a report was filed Oct. 10 by a member of the board of directors after questions arose after the property’s sale in 2012 – specifically, disbursal of the proceeds of that sale,” Dean said. “Investigators with the APD are currently in the process of obtaining necessary financial records to answer those questions.
“I can’t say at this point if a crime has occurred,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to decide.”
Dean did say that the board of director’s inquiry was filled with “valid questions;” however, he declined to reveal the identity of the board member who filed the report.
Earlier this month, The Star-News obtained a copy of a letter to AOK Inc. President Dr. Steven Dohoney from local attorney and AOK Inc. board member Allen Woodard, questioning the $110,000 profit from the building’s sale that August.
The letter was written on Sept. 9, 2013, and Woodard said Dohoney has not responded.
Woodard said then he’d spoken multiple times previously to Dohoney about the sale.
Probate records show Dohoney and his wife purchased a house in the Ashley Pointe subdivision on Aug. 18, 2012, for $187,900. Records then show that AOK sold the Coca Cola plant on Aug. 24, 2012 for $110,000. No mortgage was filed with the Ashley Pointe sale, “which suggests (Dohoney) paid cash for the house,” Woodard wrote.
Woodard then said previous letters prior to September asking for documentation showing that no AOK money was used in the home sale have gone unanswered, as have attempts to obtain copies of AOK bank accounts, receipts and any other pertinent records.
Probate records show the property was purchased from AOK by Edwin McIntyre Jr. and Tim Day on Aug. 24, 2012, for $110,000. The two men in turn, sold the property to the City of Andalusia on March 8, 2013, for $145,000.