Harrisville, Mich. ? As the elected treasurer of rural Alcona County for nearly 14 years and an accountant on the side, Thomas Katona did not exactly look like an easy mark for con artists.

But in a case that has investigators and local residents scratching their heads, Katona is accused of embezzling a fortune from the county and losing it in a Nigerian investment scam. State police suspect he lost more than

$1.2 million, though the charges thus far involve just $186,500.

He also lost $72,500 of his own money, even after his bank warned he might be entangled in a swindle familiar to nearly anyone with an e-mail account, authorities say.

“You have to wonder how he could get involved in such a thing,” said Sheriff Doug Ellinger, who along with other county department heads is waiting to learn how his budget will be affected.

The money was taken not from the county’s $4 million operating budget, but from investment accounts totaling

$7 million that were used as a rainy-day fund and for capital purchases like new police cars.

Some residents wonder why Katona, whom the voters kept electing even after he pleaded guilty to fraud in 1998, wasn’t more closely supervised. Thomas Weichel, the county prosecutor, acknowledged there was “kind of a void in accountability.”

“You can’t operate on a handshake any more, and that’s what it’s always been like here,” retired postal worker Al LaBrecque said at the Coffee Talk Cafe on a recent afternoon. “Our innocence is gone.”

Alcona County is hunting and farming country in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, about 200 miles north of Detroit. The county seat is Harrisville, a tourist village on Lake Huron with only 500 full-time residents, although the population booms in the summer.

Katona grew up on a cattle farm and was active in the community, coaching the high school track team.

“It’s hard for people to believe that he would do something like this,” said Weichel, who has known Katona for about 30 years. Katona’s strongest supporters believe he was simply trying to raise money for the county, he said.

But Weichel suggested another, more selfish motive: Katona “was making comments to lots of people before he was caught that his train was coming in and he was going to be retiring very soon.”

Katona, 56, is jailed on $1 million bail, awaiting trial on charges of embezzlement, attempted embezzlement and forgery. His attorney, Dan White, would not comment.

State police said that Katona wired $186,500 in county funds to banks in London, Taiwan and New York – eight transactions altogether – in August and September, and all of the transfers but one went to organizations linked to a Nigerian “advance fee” scheme. The other had an improper routing code and bounced back.

Variations of the scam have been around for years. They begin with unsolicited letters – or, increasingly, e-mails – seeking help in transferring millions of dollars from Africa to overseas accounts.

The recipients are typically offered a generous share of the money if they pay what they are told are upfront costs such as taxes, fees and bribes. People who take the bait can be strung along for months or years before realizing they have been duped.

Katona was arrested and fired after bankers notified county officials about the wire transfers.