FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — A 63-year-old woman from Bartow was arrested on a fugitive warrant from Flagler County after a two-year investigation into a multi-state property sale fraud scheme. Cheryl Annette Jefferson is charged with an organized scheme to defraud over $50,000, as investigators connected her to more than $421,000 in illegal deposits.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office investigation revealed fraudulent sales in Florida, Georgia, and Colorado. Detectives identified six instances where properties were sold without the owners’ knowledge, often using fake driver’s licenses that showed Jefferson’s photograph but had the victims’ names.
The investigation started in January 2024 when a property owner in Flagler County’s S-Section reported she couldn’t pay her property taxes. She learned her land had been sold and was no longer registered in her name. Detectives examined the sale records and identified a driver’s license used during the transaction that displayed the victim’s name, but with a photo of Jefferson.
In April 2024, a second case arose concerning an empty lot in the W-Section. A relative inspecting the property found that a house had been built there without the owner’s awareness or consent. Later, detectives confirmed that wire transfers from two fraudulent sales had been deposited into a bank account opened by Jefferson in December 2022.
Financial records revealed that Jefferson routed the proceeds through multiple channels. After obtaining the funds, she issued checks to herself and others and transferred money into a different bank account. Detectives also discovered that she wired funds to a Coinbase account for cryptocurrency exchange, then transferred the assets to two separate accounts owned by men in Nigeria.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Real Time Crime Center found four more cases linked to Jefferson: two in Lee County, Florida; one in Greene County, Georgia; and a civil case in Pueblo County, Colorado. An examination of Jefferson’s bank accounts showed total deposits of $421,995.30 related to the sales in Florida and Georgia.
During the investigation, Jefferson stated she opened the bank account for a friend she believed was Brian Kelley from Florida Georgia Line. She told detectives she thought the funds were for building a recording studio in Nashville, Tenn.
However, a cellphone search by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office uncovered text messages between Jefferson and someone using the name Chase Rice, a country singer. Detectives found these messages indicated her ongoing role in transferring money into cryptocurrency.
Rick Staly, sheriff of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, highlighted the multi-state nature of the fraud. “Crime knows no borders and it doesn’t stop at the Florida Georgia Line,” Staly said. “This criminal may claim she has some high-profile friends, but I don’t see her friends getting her out of the jam she’s put herself in.”
Jefferson was taken to Walton County Jail after her arrest and was later released upon posting a $100,000 bond.
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