SureTec Pays Bond on Atlanta Official Accused of $100,000 in Credit Card Charges

After the former chief financial officer for Atlanta, accused of racking up huge charges on his city credit card, lost his appeal at the Georgia Supreme Court, SureTec Insurance Co. has sent a check to the City of Atlanta for almost $84,500.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that former CFO Jim Beard had been accused of making more than $150,000 in improper charges to his city credit card from 2014 to 2018. A city governing board found that part of that was actually related to city business, but said Beard still owed about $100,000.

Beard, who now faces a federal fraud indictment, appealed the credit card charges ruling all the way to the state’s highest court, but lost at every step, according to news reports. Houston-based SureTec, which operates in all 50 states, held the surety bond and paid the $84,500 as part of what Beard owed in restitution. The Atlanta Ethics Division does not expect to collect any more, officials said.

“We do not anticipate collecting the remaining $18,485 in sanctions and the Beard matter is hereby now closed,” Atlanta Ethics Officer Jabu Sengova said in an email to the newspaper. He noted that the payment is one of the largest the division has collected on an ethics sanction.

The investigation into Beard’s credit card charges began after the Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 TV news reported in 2018 that Beard, then-Mayor Kasim Reed and other members of Reed’s administration had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury hotels, airfaire and fancy restaurants around the world.

Federal investigators are now in the midst of a multi-year investigation into corruption at City Hall. Beard has pleaded not guilty to federal fraud and weapons charges. Federal prosecutors have said that, among other improper actions, Beard ordered two custom-built machine guns to be delivered to Atlanta City Hall. He took possession of the machine guns for his personal use – even though it was illegal for the machine guns to be possessed by anyone other than law enforcement and military personnel, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Beard then had the City of Atlanta issue a $2,642 check to pay for the machine guns. In connection with the purchase, Beard completed and submitted a U.S. Department of the Treasury tax exemption form, in which he falsely certified that the machine guns were for the exclusive use of the Atlanta Police Department, prosecutors said in a news release.

Reed left the mayor’s office in 2018 after two terms. He sought election again in 2021 but placed third in the polling.