Authorities on Friday morning arrested the former Gainesville Regional Airport facilities manager and charged him with three felony counts.
The charges stem from nearly $49,000 in missing cash from the airport parking lot’s payment boxes.
The State Attorney’s Office charged 65-year-old Paul Adjan with aggravated white collar crime, money laundering and grand theft. The charges come more than four months after Gainesville police submitted a sworn complaint alleging he stole the missing money.
GPD’s investigation began in April after airport chief executive Allan Penska notified the airport board members and police of the missing funds.
According to detective Matthew Goeckel, Adjan was to remove cash from the automated payment system once a week — on Fridays — but also began making his rounds on certain Mondays. Goeckel wrote in a sworn complaint the money removed on Mondays between April 2016 and March 2017 is the money unaccounted for.
Penska fired Adjan in June 2017.
Adjan told WUFT News in June than a new automated payment system was to blame. His attorney, Bennett Hutson, did not respond to multiple requests for comment but has requested the state of Florida give him information about Adjan’s case.
Jail records show the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office booked him into the county jail at 4:43 a.m. on Friday on a $45,000 bond.