Ryan Fitzgibbons

Introduction

Ryan Fitzgibbons, 44, of Killingly, Connecticut, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty on September 9, 2026, to wire fraud — admitting the theft of more than $775,000 from two nonprofit organizations in Windham and Middlefield where he served as executive director . The plea was entered before U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport, in an announcement made by United States Attorney David X. Sullivan alongside the Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations New England and the Connecticut State Police colonel . Fitzgibbons has agreed to pay $775,452.21 in restitution.

Background Information

Fitzgibbons ran the Holy Family Home & Shelter, a charitable nonprofit in Windham providing emergency and temporary housing to individuals and families experiencing homelessness . Between approximately November 2021 and June 2023, he stole approximately $734,683 from the shelter — unauthorized wire transfers from its bank account to his personal accounts, unauthorized purchases and ATM withdrawals on its debit card, and checks written from the shelter’s account to himself and to “cash” . He covered the thefts with false transaction and donation accounting reports given to the shelter’s board, and in September 2022 he failed to report to the board a $392,000 donation the shelter had received from the estate of an individual — a gift the board never knew existed while he was draining the accounts .

The shelter terminated him in September 2023. In approximately April 2024 — months after the first nonprofit had fired him — he was hired as executive director of Durham Middlefield Youth & Family Services, a charitable nonprofit serving children and families in Middlefield . There he used the organization’s bank account for approximately $40,769 in unauthorized purchases that he falsely justified as “marketing,” “wages,” and “software.” That nonprofit terminated him in August 2024 .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Pleaded guilty; sentencing pending.

The plea offense — wire fraud — carries a maximum term of 20 years’ imprisonment, and the restitution Fitzgibbons agreed to pay, $775,452.21, matches the combined thefts from both organizations . The documented pattern across both jobs is the same: an executive director with sole practical control of a small nonprofit’s finances converting the organization’s money to himself, then falsifying the records that would have exposed it — accounting reports at the shelter, invented expense categories at the youth-services nonprofit .

The second hiring is the fact that sharpens the case: the Durham Middlefield Youth & Family Services board took him on in April 2024 with no public signal of the thefts that had ended his shelter job the previous September, and he resumed taking money within his new role until his August 2024 termination . The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the Middlefield Police Department, with the case prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie T. Levick; U.S. Attorney Sullivan thanked the State’s Attorney’s Office for the Judicial District of Middlesex for its cooperation . Fitzgibbons is released on a $100,000 bond pending sentencing.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The release records no statement from Fitzgibbons, no comment from either nonprofit board, and no donor or client statements; the reaction on the record is institutional. The consequences are the plea, the agreed restitution of $775,452.21, the felony record, and the pending sentence that will fix his prison term . The two organizations documented in the case are the direct victims: a homeless shelter in Windham that lost roughly $734,683 while housing families in crisis, and a youth and family services nonprofit in Middlefield that lost roughly $40,769 while serving children — both led, at the relevant times, by the man now pleading to taking their money .

Current Status

Fitzgibbons has pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing, which is scheduled for December 2, 2026, before Judge Dooley . He is free on a $100,000 bond in the interim. The release does not state the government’s sentencing recommendation or whether additional conditions attach to the plea; the restitution figure is agreed, and the maximum exposure is 20 years on the single wire-fraud count .

Impact on Their Career/Life

The plea ends Fitzgibbons’s nonprofit career in both roles it documents: the executive-director positions at the Holy Family Home & Shelter and at Durham Middlefield Youth & Family Services both terminated him for cause before the case reached federal court, and the felony conviction forecloses the fiduciary track those roles represented . The record now ties his name to the cover-ups as well as the thefts — false reports to a shelter board and invented expense justifications at a children’s services nonprofit — and to the $392,000 estate donation he concealed from the board that needed it . Sentencing on December 2 will add the prison term and make the agreed restitution enforceable.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Connecticut, “Killingly Man Admits Stealing $775K from Nonprofits in Windham and Middlefield”, September 9, 2026 — source