Fort Lauderdale was scammed out of $1.2 million last month but has since recovered nearly half the money, City Manager Greg Chavarria says.
So far, the city has gotten $612,504.64 back from a bank after a city employee sent $1.2 million to a scammer pretending to work for a local construction firm, Chavarria said.
“The investigation remains very active,” Chavarria said. “We expect to recover additional funds as our law enforcement partners continue progress with the case.”
A scammer pretending to work for Moss Construction — the company under contract to build Fort Lauderdale’s new police headquarters — sent an email to Fort Lauderdale requesting an Automated Clearing House electronic funds transfer. The scammer filled out the required paperwork and attached a blank check to the email.
The city made the payment on Sept. 14, but the problem was not discovered until six days later.
It’s unclear at this point exactly how the money was recovered. Because the investigation is ongoing, the city manager said he was not able to share details about the process or whether police are close to making an arrest.
“A full summary of the efforts will be relayed once the case is fully resolved,” Chavarria said. Mayor Dean Trantalis says he holds out hope that the city will eventually recover the entire amount.
“Internet hacking continues to be a challenge not just for our city but many cities throughout the country,” the mayor said. “Devious people will always find ways to beat the system. But I feel comfortable that we will be able to secure a full recovery of all the funds so the taxpayers will not have to suffer any loss.”
Commissioner John Herbst, a certified public accountant who spent 16 years as the city’s auditor, says he also expects more of the stolen money to be recovered in the coming days.
“I believe there is more money that we expect to recover,” Herbst said. “Whatever we don’t recover from the banks will be covered by our insurance. Generally (the scammers) will route the money through more than one bank. That’s what I expect has likely happened. That is generally how it works.”
City officials have put in safeguards to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
“Our auditor’s office provided a series of quality control measures that we immediately put into place,” Chavarria said.
The city manager said he could not share details on those cybersecurity measures for security reasons.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan