{"id":111124,"date":"2026-01-09T00:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T00:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/111124\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T00:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T00:26:14","slug":"cobb-businessman-promised-investors-land-buildings-in-florida-but-they-never-got-them-wsb-tv-channel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/111124\/","title":{"rendered":"Cobb businessman promised investors land, buildings in Florida, but they never got them \u2013 WSB-TV Channel 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

COBB COUNTY, Ga. \u2014 A business owner accused of stealing $450,000 from investors is facing theft by deception and RICO gang charges.<\/p>\n

The Cobb County Sheriff\u2019s Office Fraud unit says Gary Billmyre\u2019s arrest comes after a months-long investigation.<\/p>\n

Body camera video shows a sheriff\u2019s deputy knocking on a hotel door several times before Billmyre opened it. <\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n

In the video, Billmyre told deputies he knew there was a warrant for his arrest and that he spoke with his attorney about turning himself in.<\/p>\n

Investigators told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell that Billmyre promised investors a 24% return on their investments. <\/p>\n

Investigators say he was getting money from victims under the false pretense of a building and construction operation in Hendry County, Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would accept money through wire transfer, usually in the amount of $55,000 per transfer, for individuals to clear land in Florida and to place metal buildings on that land,\u201d Division Commander Ryan Mehling said.<\/p>\n

He said there was never any indication or documents that showed land was being cleared or that Billmyre was getting construction permits.<\/p>\n

Within minutes of receiving the money, investigators said Billmyre moved it into three or four separate personal accounts for his own personal use.<\/p>\n

TRENDING STORIES:<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Billmyre had several predicate acts prior to this theft by deception,\u201d Mehling said. \u201cAll of the money that he received was able to be rolled into the RICO case, and brought here to Cobb since we have two theft by deception cases here in Cobb County.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities say people need to do their due diligence, looking into companies before investing money in them.<\/p>\n

Anyone who believes they were defrauded by Billmyre or his companies, GW Development LLC and Circle B Properties, should contact the sheriff\u2019s office fraud unit at 770-499-4752.<\/p>\n

Billmyre was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center, but an attorney is not listed for him in jail records.<\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COBB COUNTY, Ga. \u2014 A business owner accused of stealing $450,000 from investors is facing theft by deception…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[56638,56635,50392,18747,56637,56630,56632,56634,7903,28,30,29,56633,56636,634,56631,21803],"class_list":["post-111124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-2_rico","tag-bill_meyer","tag-channel_2","tag-chief","tag-circle_b_properties","tag-cobb","tag-cobb_county","tag-cobb_county_sheriffs_office","tag-county","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gary_belmeyer","tag-gw_development_llc","tag-local","tag-michelle_newell","tag-wsbsyndication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}