A former director of finance is accused of bilking in an excess of $600,000 from a Dallas-based think tank headed by former Congressman Allen West.
Joshua Galloway, 35, was recently captured in Nashville by members of a U.S. Marshals Task Force. He had hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and some gold with him when he was taken into custody.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Galloway was hired by the National Center for Policy Analysis as director of finance in April 2015.
He was fired Jan. 22 for obstructing a financial audit that “had been continuously delayed,” the records say. A few days later, a chief operating officer became aware of the embezzlement.
Galloway admitted that he had misappropriated the funds and signed an agreement with West that he would return the embezzled funds totaling $610,000, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. He agreed that he would pay $570,000 by Jan. 27. Galloway did not repay the money as agreed and soon fled the area, officials say.
An audit found that three checks had been made payable to “Fidelity Brokerage Services” in Galloway’s name.
The amounts were for $140,000, $140,000 and $350,000, the records say. The signatures of West and the chief operating officer had been forged on the checks.
Galloway is currently being held in the Denton County Jail on a probation violation for a felony conviction related to another embezzlement case. He was sentenced to 10 years of probation in July 2015 in that case – several months after he was hired by the think tank.
Officials with the National Center for Policy Analysis said they expect all of the funds to be recovered. They declined further comment.
