Johns Creek Business Owner Charged With Felony Theft, Forgery

Daniel Nathan West, principal and owner of Westtree Financial in Johns Creek was arrested and charged with felony theft by taking and forgery on Feb. 28.

West was released from the Fulton County Jail system on March 2 on $100,000 bond.

The arrest stemmed from a late 2012 incident involving insufficient funds from an escrow account.

According to a Johns Creek police report, on Nov. 30, 2012, the chief financial officer for TQ Constructor told police that in October checks written on an escrow account by Westtree Financial to subcontractors had been returned by BB&T for insufficient funds.

TQ Constructor is a subcontractor to Enviro Agscience on a project for the Corps of Engineers. Enviro and TQ had entered into an escrow agreement with Westtree as the escrow agent.

The TQ Constructor official told police that he went to Westtree offices and asked West to track the funds for the checks that had been returned, the report stated. He said that West told him that a transfer had been made in error to another client's account, resulting in the returned checks, and that the other client had already spent the money.

According to the police report, the TQ employee told police that West provided him bank statements from the escrow account. According to the complainant, West allegedly took $638,819 from the account, and made arrangements to return $339,061. The complainant told police that he has a pending lawsuit against Westtree.

The case was forwarded to Johns Creek's detective division, and West was arrested by Johns Creek Police on Feb. 28.

Note that an arrest does not indicate a conviction.