This story by Mike Donoghue was published by the Brattleboro Reformer on July 5.
[F]ederal authorities have seized three bank accounts controlled by a Windham County woman whom they believe improperly pocketed about $750,000 belonging to a now-deceased Vernon resident, U.S. District Court records in Burlington show.
Sandra T. Moore is believed to be the person responsible for converting a $750,516 check to her use between November 2017 and this summer, U.S. Secret Service Agent May Chow said in a court affidavit filed with a civil complaint in court.
No known arrests have been made.
The $750,516 check had been issued to her partner, Mary L. Connolly, but Connolly was hospitalized when the check was delivered Nov. 13, 2017, at her home by UPS, Chow said. It was from AHP Settlement Trust Fund. Connolly died about a month later, but Chow said her wire fraud investigation points to certain bank documents being forged.
Chief Federal Judge Geoffrey Crawford signed an order Tuesday approving the confiscation. He wrote the seizure was required because the money “constitutes proceeds of specified unlawful activity, namely, a wire fraud scheme.”
Attempts by the Brattleboro Reformer to reach Moore were unsuccessful.
Two accounts are with the Citizens Bank in Brattleboro and one is with the Greenfield Savings Bank, where Moore eventually deposited $500,000 from the initial $750,516 check, the Secret Service and U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“As part of her scheme and to facilitate it, Moore forged Connolly’s endorsement on the check, then deposited it into an account Moore had opened in Moore’s name at Citizen’s Bank. Moore later transferred $500,000 of these funds to another account she opened in her name at Greenfield Savings Bank,” Chow said in an affidavit.
“Moore used tens of thousands of dollars from the Citizens Bank account to enrich and benefit herself,” the 20-year federal agent wrote.
The two women began a personal relationship in 2005 and they had lived together for a number of years in the home Connolly owned in Vernon, Chow said.
Connolly suffered from heart disease and in 2004 had bequeathed to her three children her entire estate, Chow said. By 2010 Connolly signed a durable power of attorney appointing Moore as her attorney-in-fact, but prohibited her from making gifts on her behalf, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples wrote.
Connolly was admitted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center on Oct. 30, 2017, and remained there until she died Dec. 21, 2017. Moore’s appointment as Connolly’s attorney-in-fact ended with her death. Vermont law also prohibits an agent acting under a power of attorney from engaging in self-dealing, Waples wrote.
Chow in her six-page affidavit goes through a series of transactions Moore made using several bank accounts, including two at the Citizens Bank in Brattleboro. One was a checking account and the other a money market account.
Moore initially deposited the $750,516 check in the money market account, but later “made numerous debits and transfer of funds” from the money market account, court records show.
After Connolly’s death, the Probate Court in Windham County appointed Brendan Connolly, one of her three children, as the executor of the estate, Chow wrote. Brendan Connolly, who is familiar with his mother’s writing, is doubtful that some signatures are genuine, Chow said.
Moore withdrew $500,000 from the money market account on Jan. 13, 2018, and made it payable to herself, Chow wrote. She said Moore then opened a new account at the Greenfield Savings Bank in Greenfield, Massachusetts. The money has continued to generate monthly interest, Chow noted.
Meanwhile, the money market account had only $67,000 remaining as of June 14, said Chow.
Moore had used the checking account to pay for various personal bills, including $11,000 to the town of Newfane for property taxes on land she owned, Chow said. Moore also wrote checks for more than $30,000 to members of her family and more than $31,000 to pay for credit card obligations in her name at Citibank, the affidavit said.
The complaint also noted Moore opened a checking account at Citizens Bank in the name of Bella Dipinto in July 2013 and used the Vernon home as the address and her as the lone signer.
Later that month the name on the account was changed to Sandra T. Moore, doing business as Bella Depinto. It was unclear if Moore changed the spelling of Dipinto on the bank account or if there was a typographical error in Chow’s affidavit.
U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan and her office spokesman Kraig Laporte both did not respond to messages left Tuesday.
Connolly moved in 1985 to Vermont, where she worked as an assistant physical therapist, a chef and owner of a catering business, according to her obituary in the Brattleboro Reformer. Her survivors included her mother, three children, and two brothers.
