A Louisiana woman was arrested Wednesday, after she allegedly refused to return more than $1.2 million accidentally deposited into her brokerage account by Charles Schwab & Co., NOLA.com reports.
About a month after Kelyn Spadoni opened an account with Schwab in January, the company installed “enhancements” to the software used to transfer assets. Schwab intended on transferring $82.56 into her Fidelity Brokerage Services account, but Spadoni received $1,205,619 instead. The error was immediately noticed, and a reclaim request was submitted by Schwab the next day to the institution that handles the money mistakenly sent to her account. The company received a “CASH NOT AVAILABLE” notification, which meant that Spadoni had already taken the money out of her account.
Schwab contacted the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, which opened a criminal investigation, and discovered that at least $48,000 was used to buy a 2021 Hyundai Genesis sport utility vehicle. Detectives were ultimately able to retrieve about 75 percent of what was accidentally given to Spadoni.
Spadoni has been charged with theft valued over $25,000, bank fraud, and illegal transmission of monetary funds, and was fired from her job as a 911 dispatcher for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, where she had been working for over four years. Schwab has filed a federal lawsuit against Spadoni for dodging its attempts to recover the money.
In the lawsuit, Schwab cites an agreement in the contract with Spadoni which states that if a client receives an overpayment of funds, that person is required to return the full amount. Spadoni is being held at a nearby correctional facility in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
