SEYMOUR — The Seymour Police Department on Wednesday announced the arrest of a 48-year-old Maryland man in connection to scamming $375,000 from the town.
Charles Ukasanya, of Gaithersburg, is charged with first-degree larceny, which is a felony, according to a statement from Seymour Police Department Chief John Bucherati. Ukasanya is being held in Maryland pending his extradition to Connecticut.
How Ukasanya was developed as a suspect, or precisely how he allegedly ripped off Seymour, has not been made public. Police said a warrant was approved to make the arrest.
Bucherati and Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis previously said the crime happened in August 2022. Officials learned about the crime in October 2022 and called police. The Valley Indy first reported the crime in November 2022.
In a prepared statement issued on Wednesday, Drugonis shed some light on the crime, saying officials saw something was amiss during routine account reconciliation (double-checking the books).
Ukasanya
Officials saw that “fraudulent wire requests had been received and executed,” Drugonis said.
According to the First Selectwoman’s description, it sounds like a school district employee was tricked into providing information to the scammer which was used to victimize the town.
“It was discovered that an employee of the Board of Education, which maintains its own finance department, had their network credentials compromised, possibly through phishing. Criminals were able to use these credentials to access this employee’s email account and replicate the existing transfer request protocols exactly, resulting in the transfer of funds to the criminals,” Drugonis said.
Drugonis’ description sounds like a common scheme used by criminals to steal from municipalities.
The Vermont League of Cities and Towns issued an alert in 2020 warning local governments specifically about scams originating from emails.
“In this scenario, the criminal scams an employee into willingly transferring funds or information in a transaction that the employee honestly believes is legitimate,” according to the bulletin posted to the group’s website.
No Seymour employees are suspected of wrongdoing in connection to this scam, police and town officials have said.
On Jan. 24 The Valley Indy reported that the town is confident at least half the stolen money will be recouped. Chief Bucherati said the Bank of America had flagged a $182,000 suspicious transaction and set that money aside. The chief said the town is in the process of getting that money back.
Drugonis said the town is also working with its insurance company on the loss.
The $375,000 theft equates to the annual dollar amount the town allocates for the Seymour Public Library.
However, officials told The Valley Indy that the theft will not have a negative impact on next year’s budget, the creation of which is just getting underway.
Chief Bucherati noted the investigation into the cybercrime is still open.
Drugonis thanked police, including Seymour detectives, for their hard work on a complicated case.
Click here to read the First Selectwoman’s complete statement.
Click here to read the complete statement from the Seymour Police Department.
