By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — More than two years after Kosciusko County government was ripped off for $313,000 in a bank account scheme, authorities have identified a suspect and issued a warrant for her arrest.
According to court documents, a woman is a 71-year-old resident of Sacramento, Calif., who appears to have ties to Cambodia.
In April of 2022, a suspect posed as a representative from J&K Communications of Columbia City and requested the county make payments via an ACH transfer and provided transfer information to a JP Morgan Chase Bank account in the name of Thay Thi Nguyen.
Nineteen days later, payment was sent from the county to the fraudulent J&K Communications account that totaled $313,000.
County officials realized it was a fraudulent account two days later, court documents said.
Bank records show $2,000 was sent to a bank account in Cambodia, $20,000 was transferred to Thay Thi Nguyen and the remaining amount was withdrawn from the account, according to court documents.
J&K Communications was providing services as the county worked to expand its number of communication towers across the county so there was a sense of familiarity between the two entities.
A Sacramento County investigator spoke with the suspect who confirmed the bank account belonged to her and that she closed it weeks later because the bank was asking too many questions.
She also said money was sent to an international account to somebody she owed money to.
The case was filed locally in June and News Now Warsaw asked all three county commissioners about the issue Tuesday morning.
“We have been diligent, and the FBI and state police as well as our sheriff’s department in pursuing this individual and hopefully, we can get them arrested and bring them back to the county to face charges,” said county commissioner Bob Conley.
Commissioner Cary Groninger joined Conley in saying they hope to recover the money, but said he had little to add because the case is still under investigation.
Commissioner Brad Jackson concurred, saying, “It’s exciting that we at least have something, but at this point, it’s just a suspect.”
“That’s not that easy of a crime to solve, so I’m impressed they at least they have a good lead and suspect,” Jackson added.
They seemed to agree that they had not felt the need to announce the development to the public because the investigation had been led by outside agencies and that the case has not yet been resolved.
Since the scandal came to light, the county has purchased insurance to help protect against any future thefts and has instituted a handful of new policies.
Nobody has been publically reprimanded over the circumstances.
