The former finance director for Plymouth, Connecticut is accused of embezzling more than $800,000 from the town and using much of the money to build something akin to a museum in his home, filled with Hummel figurines, Annalee dolls, coins, stamps, Coach purses and more.
David J. Bertnagel, 41, of Thomaston, was arrested at his home this morning, appeared in court and was released on a $250,000 bond.
He worked as the town finance director from July 2014 until Oct. 31, 2014, when he was suspended after town officials discovered "improprieties" in the finance department.
Further investigation revealed that $808,029.94 in town funds might be missing, according to the criminal complaint.
Prior to becoming the finance director, Bertnagel, worked in the department for around six years as a part-time employee. According to the court paperwork, he is accused of exploiting a weakness in the payroll software program that allowed him to manually create batches of checks, print them and delete any record of them from the system.
When questioned about the funds on Nov. 10, he admitted to issuing “non-salary payments” from the town to himself, the complaint says.
He claimed he’d reached an agreement with town officials, allowing him to withdrawing money early from his pension account, but the former mayor denied any agreement ever existed, the complaint says.
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At first, Bertnagel said he could not find a copy of the contract and said he spent around half the money on stamp and coin collections, as well as normal household expenses. The other half was in cash or marketable securities, he said, but a review of Bertnagel’s assets showed that much less – around $100,000 – was available.
In all, Bertnagel is accused of issuing 207 checks to himself from October 2011 through October 2014, and spending $101,890 to pay down a mortgage and two lines of credit secured to his home; $136,700 for home repairs, improvements and renovations; $149,188 on credit card expenses; $124,279 to retailers specializing in collectible items, including coins, stamps Hummel figurines and Annalee dolls; $8,850 to four brokerage firms for stocks and more.
When investigators questioned one of Bertnagel’s friends, she described the house Bertnagel shares with his mother as a “museum” full of collections.
Inside the house, she said, there were more than 200 Coach purses, several Hummel figurines and dolls in a large room on the first floor of the house.
The friend also said one room of the house is dedicated to stamp and coin collections and Bertnagel also has a collection of antique clocks and original artwork depicting the town of Thomaston.
Bertnagel eventually did present a copy of what he claimed was a contract to make early withdrawals from a pension account, but federal investigators determined that it was fake and Bertnagel had likely used an electronic signing machine to add one of the signatures, the complaint says.
Neither Bertnagel nor his attorney was available for comment after court proceedings Tuesday.
