By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

Arrest warrants have been issued for a couple accused of fraudulently contracting to provide mobile-advertising and billboard services to businesses in three states that allegedly amounted to little more than a flat-screen television affixed to the top of an old van.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department announced Thursday that investigators are looking for Valerie Fleming and her husband, Charles D. Adams, who has been using the aliases of Dwight Fleming, Charles Fleming and Dwight P. Saint.

The couple have been operating an advertising business in the area registered with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office as 4 State Ad Company, according to a Sheriff’s Department news release. The release stated the business also goes by the names Four State Big Ad Company and Big Ad Company.

The release stated the suspect business should not be confused with 4 States Advertising, an established, legitimate Joplin business.

Sheriff Archie Dunn said in the news release that his office received an initial complaint about the business on Aug. 25 and that nine more alleged victims of the couple in Jasper County alone have come forward since that time. He said additional alleged victims have been identified from Pittsburg and Frontenac in Kansas and from Owasso in Oklahoma.

He said the couple are believed to have been operating the scam since February or earlier.

Authorities said Adams has been visiting various businesses in the area and promising advertisements that would be shown on a mobile unit driven to various locations where thousands of people would see them. He also allegedly has been offering ads on a few stationary billboards he claims to co-own.

The company’s services were being offered for $1,490, requiring a $490 down payment and two installments of $500 each, authorities said. The couple acquired about $5,000 from Jasper County businesses in July and August before it was realized that the “mobile advertising” was “nothing more than an in-home, flat-screen television affixed to the top of a van with 2X4s, bolts, bungee cords and two straps, with no power source for the ads to run on the screen,” the release said.

The van the couple have been using is a dark-green Plymouth Voyager, believed to be a 1996 to 2000 model, and bearing Oklahoma license plate number 080ZTE, authorities said.

The actual owners of the stationary billboards involved have told investigators that they have no partnerships with Adams or Fleming.

Fleming is listed with the secretary of state as the owner of the company, with a business address at 310 N. Cass St. in Carterville, the release stated. When sheriff’s investigators went to the address recently, neighbors told them the couple had packed up and left a few days earlier.

The arrest warrants that have been issued charge them with felony stealing and carry $3,500 bonds.