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