Published: December 17, 2005 02:51 am         

Federal raid targets local online business

GREENVILLE — A local online payment business is the subject of a federal fraud investigation, which resulted in the company being raided Friday by agents of the United States Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Several agents remained in the offices of Internet Gold Incorporated, 3931 Joe Ramsey Boulevard, late Friday night.

Special Agent B. J. Flowers with the Secret Service said the company was the focus of an ongoing investigation.

“We served a federal search warrant on the business this afternoon,” Flowers said.

Flowers said no arrests had been made in connection with the investigation. He declined to specify what the agents were looking for or the basis of the investigation against the company.

“It was a big search warrant and we’ve got a lot of stuff to look at,” Flowers said.

Officers with the Greenville Police Department assisted with the serving of the warrant, which took place at around 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Police Chief Harold Roseberry said the investigation involved allegations of fraud.

“We’ve been working with them on it for a long time,” Roseberry said. “The investigation has been going on for more than a year.”

According to the company’s web site, Internet Gold Incorporated, based in Greenville, was found in February, 2002. The company is described as a digital currency, online payment system and IntGold account processor. Internet Gold Incorporated also owns the InGoldcard ATM debit card system.

Other sources list Mark Comer of Greenville as the chief executive officer of the company and Jeff Koleski as the vice president of marketing.

No telephone listings could be found Friday for either Comer or Koleski in Greenville.