CHRISTIANSBURG -- The former president and CEO of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce was arrested Friday on seven felony embezzlement charges following an eight-month investigation.

Shane Anthony Adams, 45, was indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury that met Jan. 27. Each indictment covers a six-month period between February 2005 and July 2009.

Direct indictments are not made public until they are served. Adams drove from his home in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., to turn himself in Friday at the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. The former Longshop resident was released on $2,000 bond.

The indictments did little to answer the nagging questions of chamber and government officials, who have been working with law enforcement since summer.

The police investigation launched in June had remained under tight wraps other than a few details included in a search warrant affidavit.

It remained unclear Friday how much money is involved. No dollar amounts are listed in the indictments, although the amount must be greater than $200 for each count to be a felony.

"I'm welcoming the opportunity to clear my name," Adams said by phone Friday afternoon. "It's been a long time period of waiting to see what's going to happen."

Adams left the chamber June 29. Chamber officials have declined to say whether Adams, who had been the chamber's leader since 2002, had been fired or resigned.

Mike Soriano, president of the chamber board, said Friday that the board asked police to investigate Adams last summer. But during the inquiry, there was little board officials could say to the many questions they received.

In court, "a lot of those questions are going to be answered," he said.

In early July, police searched Adams' Blacksburg home. An officer wrote in a search warrant affidavit that there had been "numerous questionable purchases made by the President/CEO of the Chamber of Commerce." The purchases, billed to the chamber's account, "consist of personal items and expenditures that are not consistent with the routine operation of the Chamber of Commerce," it read.

Adams said Friday that he knew what the charges were but didn't know the details of why he is being charged.

Jimmy Turk, the lawyer representing Adams, said he had just become involved in the case and wasn't comfortable making a statement.

A hearing is scheduled for March 12.

According to his bail determination form, Adams has lived in Florida for seven months and spent about a month working in Jacksonville for Buffers USA, a distributor of parts for ships, trucks and containers, and moisture-control technology for containers and packaging.

Friday, Montgomery County spokeswoman Ruth Richey called the Adams matter "a sad situation we're going to have to let the justice system work through."

Montgomery County government leaders, as well as those in Blacksburg and Christiansburg, suspended funding of a chamber-led tourism promotion campaign that operated under Adams' tenure.

Soriano said he did not know whether any of the money in question was public funds shared by local governments to fund tourism marketing.

A forensic auditor hired by the chamber and given access to its books wrote an extensive report that was turned over to authorities, according to Soriano. "It is very detailed and lays out quite clearly how money was spent, where it was spent and by whom it was spent," he said.

He declined to release the report.

Richey said that without "a better understanding of the big picture," she could not elaborate further on Adams' actions or legal troubles or their effects on the county.

"There needs to be some information about how much money was stolen and where it went and how we're going to proceed from here to accomplish the chamber's goals," she said.

shawna.morrison@roanoke.com 381-1665

jeff.sturgeon@roanoke.com 381-1661