Before $21 million allegedly went missing, before the sheriff put his gun in his mouth and fired, before Tuesday’s announcement that the entire top tier of the Warren County, Va., government was indicted, there was a dream of renewal for Front Royal, Va., a town 70 miles from Washington, D.C., that fell on hard times after a rayon manufacturing plant closed in 1989, leaving 1,300 people jobless and 440 acres of toxic waste, the Washington Post reports. In 2014, with the land cleaned up and Front Royal increasingly attractive to tourists and ex-city dwellers, officials announced plans for a data center and retail complex that would bring 600 jobs and bring in other projects.
The deal was brokered by Jennifer McDonald, who directed the Warren County economic development authority. Developer Truc “Curt” Tran pledged to finance it with $40 million from wealthy immigrant investors and a $140 million federal contract his technology company had secured. Tran would fund a police training academy overseen by Sheriff Daniel McEathron. Those may have been lies. Tran never had the money to build the data center on the 30 acres his company bought from McDonald’s agency for $1, a lawsuit alleges. The training academy was one of several hoaxes that, prosecutors and civil lawsuits claim, allowed Tran, McDonald, McEathron and others to siphon millions in public funds, which they allegedly used to buy properties, pay bills and gambling debts, and enrich relatives and friends. McEathron is dead, Tran was sued by the economic development authority and state and federal investigations are under way. McDonald faces 28 state counts of embezzlement, money laundering and obtaining money through false pretenses. On Tuesday, the Virginia State Police announced that 14 current and former local officials were charged with misdemeanor misfeasance and nonfeasance.