Allegedly stole $40k from VFW, veterans wall
A prominent Eatonton businessman and veterans advocate was arrested last week on various racketeering and fraud charges, with theft amounts totaling more than $48,000, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills. The racketeering charges stem from a reported pattern of stealing from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post and the Putnam County Veterans Wall of Honor Park, the sheriff said.
Jimmy Franklin Willis, 72, of Ato Road, Milledgeville, was arrested Oct. 21 on multiple charges of negotiating or executing fictitious checks, felony theft by conversion, felony theft by taking, and felony racketeering, according to Sills.
Willis is well-known in town as a longtime insurance agent with Cotton States and Country Financial; he lived in Eatonton until a month ago when his Shady Dale Road house was taken in foreclosure and he moved in with his daughter in Baldwin County, Sills said. Willis turned himself in at the sheriff’s office without incident after he received a telephone call from the sheriff on Friday, Oct. 21. During his first appearance hearing that same day, Magistrate Christine Holmes set bond at $25,000, but it has not been posted and Willis remained in jail at the newspaper’s press time.
Willis is also wellknown as a veterans advocate and former commander of the VFW Post 6686 in Eatonton and was instrumental in getting the post moved to its new location on Oak Street a few years ago. He also was one of the cofounders of the Veterans Wall of Honor Park, which is a joint project of the local VFW and the American Legion Post 583 in Eatonton. And most recently, Willis was elected as State Commander of the Department of Georgia Veterans of Foreign Wars.
On the first of April, some leaders with the VFW filed formal complaints at the sheriff’s office, which led to the investigation and subsequent arrest, Sills said. The investigation revealed that Willis converted money from the local VFW account into his personal account through about a dozen different transactions between March and April 2022, reportedly stealing more than $20,000 from the Putnam VFW.
In the same manner, approximately $10,000 was taken from the Veterans Wall of Honor accounts in about 20 different transactions between September 2021 and March 2022 and reportedly transferred into Willis’ personal bank account.
“That’s why each of those theft by conversion charges also has a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) charge because the large number of transactions show it was a pattern,” Sills explained.
The investigation into Willis’ accounts also revealed that a West Virginia man’s social security monthly payment of $2,198 was deposited into Willis’ personal account, resulting in the theft by taking charge.
And finally, four counterfeit checks – one from a finance company in New Mexico for $7,900, one from the State of Colorado for $4,999, from a real estate company in Atlanta for $2,200, and a snow removal business in Michigan for $933 – were deposited into Willis’ account during the month before his arrest, Sills said.
The investigation is ongoing and may result in additional charges, the sheriff said.