What started as a few suspicious credit card charges at a Hall County auto auction has exploded into a criminal case with a head-spinning charge count. Investigators say a Cumming man, Michael Chad Evans, quietly funneled company money into his own accounts and now finds himself staring down 880 felony counts tied to the alleged scheme.
According to WSB-TV, Hall County deputies first arrested Evans on April 16 after Oakwood Arrow Auto Auction noticed financial discrepancies and asked a deputy who worked off-duty for the company to take a closer look at the books. Evans was initially booked on one count of theft by conversion and 36 counts of unauthorized financial transaction card use, with investigators at the time pegging the alleged losses at about $30,000. Even then, authorities warned the tally would likely rise as they dug deeper into the records.
That prediction did not take long to pan out. Investigators later widened the probe and, at the end of May, obtained a new arrest warrant alleging 843 additional counts, as reported by AccessNorthGA. Deputies say Evans used a company credit card hundreds of times between May 14, 2024 and March 17, 2026 and served him with the new warrant while he was already in jail. He remains in custody without bond, and the new counts bring the total to 880 felony charges, local reporting says. If those numbers make your calculator sweat, you are not alone.
How Investigators Say The Scheme Worked
Deputies told WSB-TV that Evans is accused of turning routine fuel stops into a personal payday. Investigators say he used the company card at convenience stores to buy money orders while also purchasing fuel for business vehicles, then deposited those money orders into his personal checking account.
WSB-TV reports that investigators traced 843 unauthorized uses of the card and say Evans deposited more than $421,000 in fraudulently obtained funds. The alleged activity spans nearly two years and ultimately prompted Oakwood Arrow to flag the accounts for deputies, setting the whole investigation in motion.
Legal Implications
On paper, the case lines up squarely with Georgia’s financial transaction card laws. Evans is charged with theft by conversion along with a long list of unauthorized-use counts that fall under the state’s illegal-use-of-financial-transaction-cards statutes. Under Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 16-9-31 and § 16-9-37), financial transaction card theft and unauthorized use are felony offenses, with penalties outlined in O.C.G.A. § 16-9-38. The precise punishment depends on the dollar amounts involved and how prosecutors choose to proceed; the details are laid out in the Georgia Code.
For now, Evans remains in the Hall County jail without bond while investigators continue combing through financial records and county prosecutors sort through the evidence, local reporting indicates. Oakwood Arrow Auto Auction, which first spotted the accounting irregularities and called in that extra set of eyes, is watching alongside the rest of Hall County as the case winds its way through the system.
