A sheriff’s dispatcher was arrested for falsely refusing to refund more than $1.2 million that had been wrongly deposited into her account.
According to local media in US, Kelyn Spadoni, a resident of Louisiana, was arrested on charges of robbery, bank fraud, and illicit transmission of monetary funds on Wednesday.
Following her conviction, she was fired from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, where she had served for more than four years.
Authorities said a clerical mistake forced Charles Schwab, a large financial services company, to deposit the seven-figure amount into her brokerage account in February when it actually intended to move around $82.
According to the sheriff’s office, the bank’s appeal to recover the money was denied because the funds were not accessible.
Authorities say the 33-year-old transferred the funds to another account right away and used some of it to purchase a new car and a home.
Sheriff’s spokesman, Capt. Jason Rivarde, said that although the money was put into her account, “it’s not her money.”
She has no legal claim to that money. Even if it was put in there by mistake. It was an accounting error,” he added.
The company tried to contact her several times to have the transferred funds returned but were unsuccessful, according to Rivarde.
So far, about 75 percent 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 client receives an overpayment of funds, the client is required to return the full amount.
If someone accidentally puts an extra zero on a utility payment, they would want that money returned or credited to them. This is no different,” Rivarde said.
Spadoni is being held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on a $50,000 bond.
