A former sheriff’s dispatcher in a New Orleans suburb has been arrested, accused by authorities of refusing to return more than $ 1.2 million that had been accidentally deposited into her brokerage account.
GRETNA, La. – The dispatcher of a former sheriff in a New Orleans suburb has been arrested, accused of refusing to return more than $ 1.2 million that had been accidentally deposited in her brokerage account, authorities said.
Kelyn Spadoni, 33, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of theft of more than $ 25,000, bank fraud and illegal transfer of funds, nola.com and WVUE-TV reported. Reports said she was fired by the parish sheriff’s office Jefferson after his arrest.
Spadoni is being held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center with a $ 50,000 bond. It was not known if she had a lawyer who could speak on her behalf.
Spadoni is accused of immediately moving the funds to another account and using some of the money to buy a new car and a house, authorities said.
Authorities said a clerical error prompted Charles Schwab, a major financial services corporation, to deposit more than $ 1.2 million in his brokerage account when it meant transferring about $ 82 in February, he reported. nola.com. When the bank tried to recover the money, the request was rejected because the money was not available, according to the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office said it later learned that Spadoni had moved the funds to another account.
Captain Jason Rivarde, a sheriff’s spokesman, said that although the money was put into her account, “it’s not her money.”
“She has no legal claim for this money,” he added. “It simply came to our notice then. It was an accounting error. ”
Charles Schwab & Co. Spadoni was sued in federal court on Tuesday. The company tried to contact Spadoni several times to return the transferred funds, but failed, Rivarde said. So far, about 75 percent of the money has been recovered, he added.
The company claimed in its lawsuit that Spadoni’s account contract with Schwab includes an agreement that if a customer receives an overpayment, the customer is obliged to return the full amount.
“If someone accidentally puts an extra zero on a utility payment, they would like this money to be returned or credited. It’s no different, “Rivarde said.
He said Spadoni had been at the sheriff’s 911 office center for four and a half years.