A person’s retirement account was hacked and more than $300,000 stolen starting around April 2014, and that led to the arrest of a Manchester man Monday, Hartford police said.

Kwadjo Osei-Wusu, 36, of Buckland Street in Manchester, was charged with second-degree money laundering, first-degree larceny and first-degree conspiracy to commit ID theft, according to Assistant Police Chief Rafael Medina.

Osei-Wusu was taken into custody at an East Hartford barbershop without incident, Medina said. A judge set his bond at $450,000.

The police department’s Major Crimes Division Financial Crimes Unit and the FBI investigated fraudulent activity of a compromised Wells Fargo account starting in March, Medina said. Investigators learned that several fraudulent bank accounts had been opened and stolen funds deposited there, then withdrawn through the use of cashier’s checks by several suspects, he said.

“The criminal activity involved sophisticated levels of cyber hacking, bank wire fraud, and money laundering that occurred within the State of Connecticut,” Medina said in an email. “It was determined that from 2014 until 2017 fraudulent checks and money orders were cashed with the monies being turned over to Wusu’s possession ranging from increments of $10,000 to $60,000.”

 

Source: Hartford Courant