A 911 shipper from Louisiana is accused of returning more than $ 1.2 million that was accidentally poured into her brokerage account, authorities said.
Harvey’s 33-year-old Kelyn Spadoni has left her role at the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office after her arrest on Wednesday on charges of theft worth more than $ 25,000, bank fraud and illegal transfer of funds, reports nola.com.
According to the news agency, Spadoni opened a brokerage account with Charles Schwab & Co., a financial services company, in January.
The following month, a clerical error led to the company accidentally depositing $ 1,205,619 into Spadoni’s account, according to the court account.
According to authorities, Spadoni apparently moved the funds to another account and used some of the money to buy a new car and a house. Employees tried to claim the money back, but could not.
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This was because Spadoni had already moved the money to another account, said Capt. Sheriff’s spokesman Jason Rivarde told nola.com.
Rivarde said that although the money was placed in Spadoni’s account, ‘it is not her money’ and that she ‘has no legal claim to the money’.
Charles Schwab & Co. sued Spadoni in federal court.
According to the lawsuit, the company tried to contact Spadoni several times by phone, email and via text message to get the money back without success, according to nola.com.
“Through her actions, Spadoni has made it clear that she does not intend to return the money that was incorrectly transferred to Schwab,” the company said in the case.
The company notes in the lawsuit that the account contract of Spadoni contains an agreement that if the customer pays too much, he must return the full amount.
“If someone accidentally puts an extra zero on a utility payment, they want the money returned or credited to them. It is no different,” Rivarde added.
The company contacted the sheriff’s office and a criminal investigation was launched.
Investigators then learned that Spadoni had used some of the money to buy a home and a 2021 Hyundai Genesis, a sports utility vehicle that could cost more than $ 70,000.
Rivarde said about 75 percent of the funds have been recovered so far.
Spadoni is being held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on a $ 50,000 bond. She worked at the sheriff’s office 911 for four and a half years, Rivarde said.
The Sheriff’s Office of Jefferson Parish and Charles Schwab & Co were contacted for additional comments.