NORWICH – The daughter of the owner of a Norwich auto repair and towing company has been arrested on charges she embezzled more than $600,000 from the business and her father’s personal accounts.
Danielle Kolashuk, 49, of 1412 Route 163 in the Oakdale section of Montville, turned herself in to Norwich police Friday morning and was arraigned a few hours later in Norwich Superior Court on charges of first-degree larceny and third-degree forgery.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Kolashuk was general manager and responsible for bookkeeping at Superior Auto at 92 Stonington Road, which was owned by her father. The affidavit did not identify him. He told police that although Kolashuk doesn’t own the business, she does own 28 percent of the property it operates out of.
Norwich Officer Christopher Hawrylik investigated the finances between 2012 and 2016, police said, and determined that more than $600,000 “appeared to have been fraudulently removed from the Victim’s business and personal accounts and used to finance personal bills, taxes and gambling habits.”
Police said an audit shows Kolachuk paid property taxes on her home in Montville, a total of $27,944, between 2012 and 2015 out of the company’s business account. She also received 80 non-payroll checks from the account totaling $153,680 between 2012 and 2016, police said. Police said the business account paid monthly tuition bills for Kolachuk’s children to attend St. Patrick’s School in Norwich.
Kolashuk also had power of attorney over her father’s personal accounts, police said.
Kolachuk used her father’s personal account to pay the premiums on a life insurance account she took out on her father and later canceled, giving her at least $40,000, police said. She also used that account to pay $400 for a birthday party for her husband at the French Club in Jewett City, police said.
In November 2015, police said, Kolachuk tried to deposit a $10,440 check payable to her father in her account and is accused of forging his signature to endorse it to her.
Although police said she had a salary of $720 per week, Kolashuk had total lifetime gambling losses of a little more than $1 million at Foxwoods Resort Casino and $815,490 at Mohegan Sun. Police said she lost $88,642 in 2012, $85,360 in 2013, $19,366 in 2014; she won $213,913 in 2015 and $78,241 in 2016, all at Mohegan Sun. Police said Kolashuk hasn’t gambed at Foxwoods in the past 10 years.
Hawrylik questioned Kolachuk in January, police said. She told him that she stopped working for her father in May 2016, but hadn’t been paid since February 2016, and there was “beyond bad blood” between her and her father. She said she stopped coming to work because her son became hospitalized.
Kolashuk denied any wrongdoing. She said it was her understanding that she was a part owner of the business, and her father told her “you own this place too, do whatever you need to,” police said.
Kolachuk told police that the investigation was the result of a misunderstanding. Later, several people wrote letters on her behalf saying she was either a co-owner or would inherit the business, police said. But after Kolachuk left, she applied for and received unemployment benefits, something she could not have received if she actually was an owner, police said.
Kolashuck was released after putting up a $50,000 bond. At her arraignment, her case was transferred to Part A of New London Superior Court, which handles the most serious matters. She is scheduled to appear there on Aug. 6.
