Two parents of an Amherst Exempted Village Schools student were indicted by a grand jury and arrested for allegedly defrauding their child's school of thousands of dollars, according to authorities.
In October of 2014, the Amherst Exempted Village Schools filed a fraud complaint with Amherst police to report the school system was defrauded by parents of an Amherst student.
The parents were identified as Jaleh Saghafi (Presutto) and Phillip Presutto, both from Amherst. When the original complaint was filed, it was believed the parents had been defrauding the schools for about six months. The initial reported loss was several thousands of dollars.
Amherst detectives discovered Saghafi and Presutto had been defrauding the school system for much longer than originally suspected. Police believed the Presuttos were defrauding the schools since 2011.
Detectives determined the two generated invoices for reimbursement from the schools for specialized tutoring services for their, which the school had originally agreed to pay. The tutoring services were not used the way the Presuttos claimed, yet the two received the funding from the school system. The investigation also showed there were several tutors that the Presuttos had contact with during the timeframe of the fraud who may have not been paid for their services.
On May 10, Saghafi, 47, and Presutto, 44, were indicted by the Lorain County Grand Jury for theft, forgery, and tampering with records.
Amherst detectives, with help from the U.S Marshall’s Fugitive Task Force, arrested both suspects on May 13 at their home.
The investigation is ongoing.
