Misconduct and gross mismanagement by allegedly fraudulent security guard provider and the City of Pembroke Pines led to $1.2 Millions in questionable expenditures

As part of an ongoing effort to help local governments identify and recover misspent taxpayer funds, the Broward Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated a review of payment records of multiple cities, including the City of Pembroke Pines. Our review led us to suspect that a security services provider billed the city for services it did not render.Our investigation substantiated this concern and ultimately led to arrests of Olalekan Shokunbi, owner of Bayus Security Services; Ololade Shokunbi, owner of Bayus Security Protection and Olalekan’s wife; and Oluwatoyin Laditan, both companies’ operations manager, for organized scheme to defraud, a first-degree felony under state law.The OIG determined there was probable cause to believe that Bayus Security Services and then Bayus Security Protection (collectively, Bayus or the companies), with which the city contracted to provide security services at several city-owned properties, defrauded the city out of at least $711,553.60 between October 1, 2012, and June 1, 2017, using different tactics that we outline in this report and that are described in detail in arrest warrants.