A Naugatuck woman, her husband and her ex, found a way to work together in an elaborate operation and defraud a Connecticut bank and landlords associated with it out of more than $6 million, according to United States Attorney Nora Dannehy.
On Jan. 12, the Internal Revenue Service arrested Susan A. Curtis, 48, and her husband, Gary J. Stocking, 43, of Naugatuck, who are accused of bank fraud and money laundering.
On Thursday, a grand jury in Hartford indicted them, along with Curtis’ ex-husband, Kevin Caffrey, 45, of Wolcott. They are accused of trying to defraud the bank of approximately $6.2 million between 2002 and May 2009.
Curtis worked in the bank's property services division of Webster Bank and the trio are accused of setting up “sham companies" called ‘New House LLC’ and ‘Equity LLC,’ and misrepresented to Webster Bank that the companies and Stocking were brokers, Dannehy alleges.
The indictment also alleges the defendants defrauded landlords involved in leases with Webster out of more than $1 million.
Stocking has never been registered as a broker in Connecticut, nor have the companies they created, Dannehy said.
Webster Bank released about $5 million to the companies and Curtis allegedly diverted $1 million to Equity LLC that was supposed to go to Webster Bank for property improvements, Dannehy said.
The Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating.
