PIKE COUNTY BOE CHAIRMAN ARRESTED

On Tuesday, January 5, 2021, the GBI arrested Gregory Ryan Edge, 41, of Williamson, GA, for six counts of felony theft by deception.

On March 19, 2020, the GBI Region 2 Field Office was requested by the Griffin Police Department to assist in investigating suspicious activity reported on loans at The Southern Credit Union in Griffin, Spalding County, Georgia. Initial investigation identified former credit union employee, Gregory Ryan Edge, as a subject with alleged involvement of theft of approximately five customers’ funds during various loan activities.

Further investigation identified a total of 22 victims from 2014-2019, many of whom were stolen from multiple times. Most of the alleged thefts occurred as a part of refinance loans where Edge would create a payoff check that contained more money than required to close the old loan. Edge would then take that check to a bank teller, then essentially “make change” with the excess amount and keep that excess amount for himself. Sometimes the excess amount was explained to the customer as loan fees to the credit union and other times there was no explanation and customers later discovered the discrepancies. The total amount of loss is estimated to be in excess of $35,000.