Online Thieves Steal $2.3 Million from Peterborough

[cowbell76]

Originally Posted by KCZ

Actually, he answered one out of eight questions. Not so helpful. You're being kind. Heads should roll, including the person that did this and that person's supervisor or dept manager.

Not kind, sarcastic! Yes, it was obvious deflection. Way to hide behind “personnel matter” and “ongoing investigation.” (And the Town Administrator is a woman.)

I also think that the published answers might have been edited since the first time I read that Q&A, but I can’t say for sure. I was thinking that she’d dug in even more with her vague and deflecting answers but I could be thinking of something else I read.

The outgoing Finance Director may have already technically “retired.” I believe his retirement date was July 31, but I know he’s still on the job as they had a built-in overlap for a smoother transition to his successor. So, there’s no point in firing him… and I can’t see them firing a brand new Finance Director who I don’t think was even on the job when the first payment was sent to scammers.

[abnfdc]

Originally Posted by jdhpa

This should be job 1 for any organization, public or private - basic financial controls. It isn't reasonable to expect every city employee to be up to date on the latest scams, but anyone who has access to money should know the basics of procedures to pay bills.

Read as some type of rudimentary training.

but yes, financial controls is the proper term in this case. A couple of folks with checklists-easy and safe. There should be no outgoing transaction which only touches one person. ESPECIALLY when we're talking millions of taxpayer's dollars.

[KCZ]

From WMUR.com

The Peterborough select board held its first meeting since announcing the theft of more than $2 million from the town on Tuesday night.

Town officials said on Tuesday that they were able to return nearly $600,000 back. Now, they plan to ask permission to overspend the town budget. A public meeting on the issue is set for Sept. 21.

[abnfdc]

Now they want to overspend? Please tell me there is a joke somewhere.

[abnfdc]

Poor taxpayers:


https://www.concordmonitor.com/Peter...mages-44049999



Insurance will cover $125,000 of Peterborough’s $2.3 million scam losses

Peterborough’s insurer will cover $125,000 of the $2.3 million lost in a scam, according to Town Administrator Nicole MacStay.

“There was never an expectation that the losses would be 100% covered,” MacStay said. “We were working with Primex (the New Hampshire Public Risk Management Exchange) all along obviously, and going back and forth with them.”

The town administration received the final answer on coverage just before Thanksgiving.

Primex will also be covering all expenses related to work done by ATOM Group, a cybersecurity firm that handled parts of the investigation alongside the Secret Service. MacStay said that although she never saw the resulting bill from their work, the insurance coverage of this expense was “significant.”

The scam was discovered in August when a total of $2.3 million was taken by criminals who posed as the ConVal School District and Main Street Bridge contractor Beck & Bellucci and persuaded town finance officials by email to send vendor payments to bank accounts set up by the scammers. The Secret Service initially recovered about $600,000 of the stolen money intended for the contractor, and according to MacStay, it recovered another $3,500 in early November.

“Every little bit helps,” she said, speaking of the insurance coverage as well.

The town received state approval to overspend its budget by $1.7 million from the unassigned fund balance to cover the losses the Secret Service couldn’t recover, and the $125,000 insurance payout will be used to simply “go toward losses,” according to MacStay, to help recoup from what she characterized as a “significant cash loss” as a result of the scam. The fund balance was at $3 million when the town dipped into it, and is expected to still have over $1 million at the end of this fiscal year.

“We’re just using (the insurance money) for regular business,” she said. “It becomes part of our cash balance and it’ll go toward whatever regular bills come up.”

Although the approval is for $1.7 million, MacStay said the amount of money the town needs to pay from the unrestricted fund balance will be known at the end of the fiscal year on June 30. The insurance money, along with other unanticipated revenues and cost savings, could be used to offset some of that amount.

“We’ll have a much better idea late spring,” she said.

The fund is often used to reduce property taxes, but MacStay previously said that because of the withdrawal, that option was unlikely. Due to a revaluation that increased many residential property values by 30% to 40%, the tax rate ended up falling to $25.76 per $1,000 of assessed value from last year’s rate of $30.84, but a home assessed at $200,000 in 2020 would have seen a 12.8% tax increase if the property increased in value by 35%.

More at the link

[Wells5]

Question: Who were the perpetrators of the scam and what country do they reside in? Any word on that?


The financial maneuvers that the town administrator has instituted in order to fool local taxpayers into believing there really isn't much of a problem should result in her being fired. That special fund money will have to be made up by big property tax increases. Kicking the can down the road is no solution.