A 911 dispatcher got a surprise in her brokerage account in February: a deposit of $1,205,619.56. The next day, Charles Schwab tried to recover the money it had put into her account by accident, but the money was already gone.

Kelyn Spadoni, who worked for the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff’s Office for four and a half years, refused to answer calls, text messages or emails for about a month after the funds were transferred. She had moved the money to another account. A criminal investigation by the Sheriff’s office revealed that she had bought a house and a Hyundai SUV with the money.

On April 7, Spadoni, 33, was arrested and charged with bank fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, and theft greater than $25,000. That same day, she was fired from her dispatch job.

In January, Spadoni had opened an account with Charles Schwab. The company recently installed an “enhancement” to the asset-transfer program they use.

Charles Schwab filed a lawsuit against Spadoni in federal court in New Orleans. It admitted it was to have moved only $82.56 into Spadoni’s brokerage account, but said that a software glitch had caused the accidental transfer of the million-dollar amount. The filing alleges that she immediately closed her brokerage account and moved funds to another account in an attempt to keep the money.

This transfer error was different than the one that Citibank made in August of 2020. Citibank was the agent of a syndicated term loan for Revlon. In addition to the $7.8 million in interest payments they had collected and intended to transfer to lenders, they accidentally sent along nearly $900 million of their own money.

Some of the $900 million was returned, but $500 million of it was not.

That case went to court. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the recipients could keep the money. They believed they were receiving pre-payments on a loan they had made, and the money was (eventually) due them.

The results in this case will not be the same.

Charles Schwab said in the lawsuit, “By her conduct, Spadoni has made it clear she does not intend to return the mistakenly transferred funds to Schwab.”

Capt. Jason Rivarde, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said, “I think most people understand about how much money is in their bank accounts. When you’re expecting $80 and you get $1.2 million, there’s probably something wrong there.”

Spadoni was released on a $150,000 bond.

Even though 75% of the funds have been returned, Spadoni had signed a contract with Charles Schwab when she opened her account, acknowledging that it is her responsibility to return the payment if she was ever overpaid. “If someone accidentally puts an extra zero on a utility payment, they would want that money returned or credited to them. This is no different,” Rivarde said.

A Schwab spokesman said in an email that the company was cooperating with authorities to resolve the issue, but declined further comment.