COVINGTON, La. — Authorities say a Lithuanian national is in custody after allegedly scamming tens of thousands of dollars from two St. Tammany Parish residents who thought they were purchasing boats.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said Modestas Grublys may have been victimizing people from across the country while using the fake name Mads Lund.
The sheriff's office said a St. Tammany resident contacted deputies in April to report that they wired a man $55,000 for a boat, but when they went to Florida to pick it up, there was no boat.
While investigating the scam, deputies say they were contacted by a second resident who said they wired $28,000 for a boat that was supposed to be delivered to their business, but it never arrived.
STPSO detectives obtained a warrant for the arrest of Mads Lund, but were able to determine it was a fake alias after consulting with Homeland Security.
The sheriff's office said it obtained an arrest warrant for Grublys on May 13, and he was taken into custody on June 7 after he was involved in a traffic crash in Indiana. On June 25, Grublys was extradited to Louisiana and booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on charges of theft and money laundering. Additional counts on each charge were added days later.
“I commend the work our detectives did in making an arrest in these cases,” Sheriff Randy Smith said. “Financial Crimes cases are some of the hardest to solve, but we have the very best detectives that are dedicated and use all the resources available to make sure anyone who takes advantage of St. Tammany residents is identified and arrested.”
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