SEYMOUR — Three months after discovering someone scammed $375,000 from the town, officials still haven’t explained to the public how the crime happened.
First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis and Chief of Police John Bucherati have released selected information, while saying other info can’t be released because of the investigation.
Example — they recently announced that it looks like the town will be able to recover at least half of the stolen loot.
“Through a very complex investigation we discovered that Bank of America flagged a transaction (of $182,000) as suspicious, and they set the money aside. The town is in the process of recovering the funds,” Bucherati told The Valley Indy on Monday.
The “cyber” crime — in which someone or some agency may have arranged to have money transferred to them under false pretenses — happened in August 2022.
Town officials said they learned about the crime in October 2022 and called police.
Town officials confirmed to The Valley Indy in late November 2022 that a crime had been committed.
The FBI, Seymour police, and the state’s attorney are investigating.
Authorities said no public employees in Seymour are under investigation.
It remains unclear whether any public employees will face disciplinary issues for being duped.
Drugonis has said financial controls have been beefed up to make sure the crime won’t happen again. However, the town is declining to explain what controls were missing or weren’t followed at the time of the crime.
“There are procedures in place and policies regarding cyber security, and apparently it was not followed by an employee,” Drugonis said. “I can’t say what those policies and procedures are because that would impede the case; that’s what the FBI told us. I can’t release that information.“
The Valley Indy previously reported that the crime started with a common type of email phishing scheme and ended with town funds being transferred to the scammer.
The scam involved both the school district and town government.
