New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Suspect in $375K theft from town pleads not guilty
MILFORD — A Maryland man charged with first-degree larceny in connection with the theft of $375,000 from the Town of Seymour has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Charles Ukasanya, 48, of Gaithersburg, Md., appeared before Judge Peter Brown at Superior Court in Milford, where his lawyer, John Bowdren, entered the not guilty plea on his client’s behalf.
Bowdren declined to comment outside the courtroom.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit written by Detective Patrick Dempsey, police became involved in the case in September, when the town’s Finance Director, Doug Thomas, said he sent a wire transfer of $143,157.74 the prior month after receiving an e-mail from who he believed to be an accounts payable specialist at the Board of Education.
The wire transfer was meant to go to the Teachers Retirement Board, and a Microsoft Word document attached to the e-mail looked “exactly like” it usually did, the school board’s finance manager told police.
However, the school board employee’s email had been hacked, and there was at least one difference in the Word document: a different routing number than usual.
The affidavit says investigators determined one of the successful logins to the school board employee’s email came from an internet service provider in Nigeria – but that police eventually traced some of the money to a destination closer to home.
The arrest warrant affidavit does not itemize how officials concluded a total of $375,000 was stolen, but said Thomas found another $50,000 sent to an “unfamiliar” Bank of America account.
After serving a search warrant at Bank of America, police traced the account to a Maryland-based limited liability company with one authorized user: Ukasanya.
Police then obtained surveillance footage from several ATMs in Maryland which depicted Ukasanya withdrawing money from the account,
according to the affidavit.
Ukasanya was arrested in Maryland last month before being transported to Connecticut, where he was released after posting $25,000 bond.
In a Facebook post last
month, Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis said that the theft was a result of a “phishing incident that occurred over the summer.”
“A review of the town’s processes and procedures
concerning money transfers was done, and steps have been put into place to ensure this type of fraud cannot happen again,” Drugonis said.
Drugonis said she would continue to “share as much information as legally possible.”
No other suspects have been charged in the case, but police said the investigation is “active and ongoing.”