BRISTOL, Conn.–It has been nearly a year since several robbers allegedly broke into a CU CFO’s home and held him and his mother hostage as part of a robbery attempt.The crime remains unsolved, and now investigators are looking into whether what took place here is related to a string of employee abduction robberies that took place later in 2015 in Tennessee.
As CUToday.info reported here, Brian Witham of Maine and Michael Benanti have been arrested and charged on 15 counts related to abductions/robberies in Tennessee. But no arrests have been made in the case of Matthew Yussman, 46, the CFO at Achieve Financial Credit Union, who said two men broke into his Connecticut home in February of 2015. They tied his 70-year-old mother to the bed and claimed to have put a bomb beneath it. They then allegedly placed what they said was a bomb vest on Yussman and forced him to drive to the credit union. If their demands were not met, the two robbers said, they would blow up both bombs.
As CUToday.info reported here and here, Yussman contacted his CEO on his way to the credit union’s offices in New Britain, Conn., and he never got any further than the CU’s parking lot. Yussman’s mother eventually freed herself and left the house, and police met the CFO outside the credit union. The bomb vest was discovered to be fake.
The Hartford Courant reported that the FBI, which has taken over the Connecticut investigation, have been looking for any connection to that abduction/robbery attempt to similar crimes in Tennessee at both banks and credit unions, and to whether Witham and Benanti may have had any connection. Both men were arrested in North Carolina and are being returned to Knoxville for their trials.
But Witham and Benanti have not been charged in connection with every abduction/robbery that took place in Tennessee. The duo are believed to have been behind three such robberies in the Knoxville area, as CUToday.info previously reported. But police have not clarified whether Witham and Benanti are also considered suspects in the Memphis, Tenn., robbery/abduction attempt involving an employee of FAA Credit Union.
The Courant also reported that Yussman remains a suspect in the Achieve Financial case, and that his bank records have been subpoenaed and interviews have been conducted with his neighbors and even individuals he played hockey against on the night of the home invasion.
In March of 2015, police alleged that Yussman had failed a lie detector test related to the crime.
Yussman’s attorney, Richard Brown, was quoted by the Hartford Courant as saying, "My client and his mother have been put through hell and we are hoping and have every reason to believe that the authorities are doing everything they can to apprehend the people who did this. We believe it to be true that there will be an arrest in this case pretty soon."
It has been nearly a year since several robbers allegedly broke into a CU CFO’s home and held him and his mother hostage as part of a robbery attempt.