CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Police say a New York woman deceived Franklin County for over $1.5 million dollars by claiming to be a representative of the company building an addition on the county courthouse.
Katherine Yvonne Gonzalez surrendered herself to the New York City Police Department's 47th Precinct today on an arrest warrant from Chambersburg Police Department in regards to an ongoing fraud investigation.
Investigators say that on December 19, 2019, the Franklin County Controller’s Office received an email from a subject claiming to be a representative of Lobar, Incorporated. Lobar is a construction company actively constructing an addition to the Franklin County Courthouse Complex. The corresponding email address contained Lobar in the name, however it was later confirmed that the domain name was not associated with their company.
The person who sent the email requested a change in their direct deposit payee account. The controller’s office sent a form to the alleged Lobar representative. The form was returned to the controller's office on December 23, 2019, with banking information directing future deposits to be made to a TD Bank account. The form contained additional employer information from Lobar that attempted to legitimize the administrative procedure. A copy of a voided TD Bank check was also provided that contained the routing number and account number for the new deposit. Lobar, Inc. was printed on the upper left corner of the check. This information is believed to have been forged onto the copy of the check. The contact name listed on the direct deposit form was Desmond Miller. This information was received by the controller's office from the same email address with the same Internet Protocol (IP) address as the previous request received on December 19, 2019.
Franklin County made a payment of $1,570,638.33 to the TD Bank account on February 20 of this year. The money was deposited into the account on February 24. TD Bank marked the transaction as suspicious and placed a hold on the funds on March 3.
Representatives from TD Bank contacted the issuing bank, starting an investigation. It was confirmed that the subject(s) who received the payment had no association with Lobar, Incorporated, and the payment needed to be reversed. TD Bank took actions to do such after receiving the appropriate requests.
On April 15, it was discovered that not all of the funds dispersed to this account had been recovered. Three transactions totaling $243,000 were made before a hold was placed on the account. On March 17, a search warrant was issued by the 39th Judicial District Court of Common Pleas to TD Bank. Information received from the bank indicated that the account where the deposit was made was a joint account between Katherine Gonzalez and her 19 year old son.
The bank confirmed that Gonzalez, a 55 year old female resident of Bronx, New York City, made three withdrawals from the account. Gonzalez withdrew official checks in the amounts of $75,000, $80,000 and $88,000. Gonzalez made the check for $75,000 payable to herself. The other two checks were made payable to other individuals. Checks in the amount of $80,000 and $75,000 were deposited into accounts belonging to Digital Federal Credit Union. A stop payment was made on the check for $88,000 and the balance of this check is being returned to Franklin County.
A subpoena has been issued to DFCU demanding additional information relevant to this investigation. The two accounts with DFCU have balances of $56,500 and $47,832.28. Those assets were frozen and are in the process of being returned to Franklin County.
An arrest warrant was issued for Katherine Yvonne Gonzalez on April 30. She is being charged with theft by deception and receiving stolen property, both felonies of the first degree. The New York City Police Department assisted the Chambersburg Police Department with this investigation.
SOURCE: Chambersburg Police Crimewatch
