The Town of Oxford is due a $100,000 payment from an insurance company, which covers a portion of the money allegedly misappropriated by the town’s former tax collector.
“This is one successful step in a long process which continues and will be followed through to the end of the investigation in the name of our residents and taxpayers,” First Selectwoman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers said. Click the video to see about five minutes of the First Selectwoman’s statement.
More than $600,000 went missing from the town since 2007, according to court testimony in a civil case filed by the town against former tax collector Karen Guillet.
The $100,000 payment is from the Hartford Fire Insurance Co.
The company determined Wednesday the town is due the payment, according to information given by Drayton-Rogers at a press conference Thursday.
The insurance company is named as a defendant in the town’s civil lawsuit against Guillet. The company’s policy guaranteed the loyalty and honesty of the former tax collector.
Dominick Thomas, Guillet’s attorney in the civil case, said the move by the insurance company has no bearing on the civil case against his client.
“What the insurance company does has no relevancy. I do not even know what investigation they have or have not done, but it certainly has no relevancy in the civil case. It is not even admissible,” Thomas said. “The fact they decided it was something they wanted to do has no bearing at all on the case.”
The civil lawsuit is still in the early phase of discovery, Thomas said.
State police have been investigating the matter since early 2010. State police said Thursday morning the investigation continues and that there is nothing new to report on their end.
Guillet was operating something of a Ponzi scheme in the Oxford Tax Collector’s office for at least six years, town officials said during testimony at a civil hearing in Superior Court in Milford in April.
Checks and cash for tax payments would come into Guillet’s office — but wouldn’t necessarily get applied toward the account of the person who paid.
Instead, Guillet floated the payments to other accounts in an elaborate scheme to hide missing cash, officials said.
Drayton-Rogers said a three-member panel has been working for a year compiling paper work to substantiate the claims the town has made against Guillet.
“This has been and continues to be an intense and time-consuming process, with claims yet to be proven against her,” Drayton-Rogers said in a prepared statement.
While Oxford continues to go after Guillet in civil court, “the criminal aspect of this case is totally and solely being handled by the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad. The Town of Oxford, through our dedicated panel members, the town counsel and my office, have provided the same information and more to the police that has been provided to the insurance company.”
