The president of a Florida-based janitorial company is facing charges after allegedly forging a letter of credit (L/C) to secure a US$1 million contract with a state agency, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

President of Building Maintenance of America (BMA), Anthony Leonardo, has been arrested and is now facing a charge of forging bank documents.

Contractual arrangement

According to the FDLE, the state of Florida's Department of Management Services (DMS) entered into a contractual agreement with BMA.

Under the agreement, BMA had to put up an L/C of for the amount of U$1,051,000 and deliver this to the DMS.

Forgery

On receipt of the L/C however, the DMS contacted Bank of America and discovered the document was a forgery.

Investigators at the FDLE said they had found that Leonardo's forged L/C used a bank account that did not belong to him and fraudulent signatures.

BMA's core business is contract cleaning for government facilities.

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