MANDEVILLE.La. (WGNO) — On Wednesday, the St.Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of a man who scammed two St.Tammany Parish residents out of thousands of dollars. Police arrested Modestas Grublys, a Lithuanian national who was living in the United States under the fake name of Mads Lund. According to reports, he had been victimizing people all over the country.
The sheriff’s office reported that in April, a resident told deputies that they wired a man $55,000 for a boat, and when they went to Florida to pick it up at a specific address he provided that there was no boat. While investigating, police were contacted by a second victim. According to STPSO, the second victim wired the individual $28,000 for a boat that was supposed to be delivered to their business. The boat never arrived and the “seller” terminated all communication.
The investigation led STPSO Financial Crimes detectives to a man who had an arrest record out of Florida under the name Mads Lund. However, in working with Homeland Security Investigations, STPSO detectives were able to determine that was a fake name.
STPSO detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Grublys on May 13, and on June 7, he was taken into custody after he was involved in a traffic crash in Indiana. He was booked into a facility in Indiana while he awaited extradition to St. Tammany Parish.
On June 25, he was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on one count each of Theft Over 25,000 and Money Laundering.