Well I have to wonder about the interstate business laws.
How does this not become federal if anyone out of state did not receive paid for items?
Hard to get the Feds to open an investigation on obtaining money or goods by false pretense.
NC Law on False Pretense.
"If the value of the goods obtained by false pretenses is less than $100,000 the defendant will be charged with a Class H felony. In North Carolina, the punishment for a Class H felony can be anywhere between 4 months unsupervised probation, to 39 months active prison time."
§ 14‑100. Obtaining property by false pretenses.
(a) If any person shall knowingly and designedly by means of any kind of false pretense whatsoever, whether the false pretense is of a past or subsisting fact or of a future fulfillment or event, obtain or attempt to obtain from any person within this State any money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value with intent to cheat or defraud any person of such money, goods, property, services, chose in action or other thing of value, such person shall be guilty of a felony: Provided, that if, on the trial of anyone indicted for such crime, it shall be proved that he obtained the property in such manner as to amount to larceny or embezzlement, the jury shall have submitted to them such other felony proved; and no person tried for such felony shall be liable to be afterwards prosecuted for larceny or embezzlement upon the same facts: Provided, further, that it shall be sufficient in any indictment for obtaining or attempting to obtain any such money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value by false pretenses to allege that the party accused did the act with intent to defraud, without alleging an intent to defraud any particular person, and without alleging any ownership of the money, goods, property, services, chose in action or other thing of value; and upon the trial of any such indictment, it shall not be necessary to prove either an intent to defraud any particular person or that the person to whom the false pretense was made was the person defrauded, but it shall be sufficient to allege and prove that the party accused made the false pretense charged with an intent to defraud. If the value of the money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value is one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) or more, a violation of this section is a Class C felony. If the value of the money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value is less than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000), a violation of this section is a Class H felony.
(b) Evidence of nonfulfillment of a contract obligation standing alone shall not establish the essential element of intent to defraud.
(b1) In any prosecution for violation of this section, the State is not required to establish that all of the acts constituting the crime occurred in this State or within a single city, county, or local jurisdiction of this State, and it is no defense that not all of the acts constituting the crime occurred in this State or within a single city, county, or local jurisdiction of this State.
(c) For purposes of this section, "person" means person, association, consortium, corporation, body politic, partnership, or other group, entity, or organization. (33 Hen. VIII, c. 1, ss. 1, 2; 30 Geo. II, c. 24, s. 1; 1811, c. 814, s. 2, P.R.; R.C., c. 34, s. 67; Code, s. 1025; Rev., s. 3432; C.S., s. 4277; 1975, c. 783; 1979, c. 760, s. 5; 1979, 2nd Sess., c. 1316, s. 47; 1981, c. 63, s. 1; c. 179, s. 14; 1997‑443, s. 19.25(l); 2019‑193, s. 2(a).)
What will allow the FBI to investigate a crime?
"If a possible violation of federal law under the jurisdiction of the FBI has occurred, the Bureau will conduct an investigation."
"Under federal law, obtaining money or property through false pretenses as part of a scheme or artifice to defraud, and using means of interstate commerce such as a telephone, is illegal under title 18 USC section 1343; the crime is usually referred to as "Wire Fraud." There are Federal laws providing penalties for ..."
The Political dominance in Catawba NC will made it difficult to get the locals to request the FBI assume the Investigative lead in this incident.