ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Rock Island County has lost more than $115,000 in taxpayer dollars to an apparent wire transfer scam, according to the county sheriff.
Sheriff Gerry Bustos said two fraudulent transactions were made in June and July of 2021. It stemmed from a scam email that came into the county auditor's office, claiming to be a company the county was doing business with. The email asked that future payments be made through ACH, Automated Clearing House.
Automated Clearing House is a way for payments to be made in a direct or electronic way.
Previously, the county had been paying this company through paper check.
"I want to make it very clear, this email was fraudulent and was not from the company that contracts with Rock Island County," said Sheriff Bustos.
Sheriff Bustos said the first payment of $97,042.50 was made on June 18. A second payment of $18,061.40 was made on July 23; both payments were authorized by the county auditor's office and went into the fraudulent account, instead of to the contractor.
Between June 18 through July 27 most of the money inside that fraudulent account was used through checks, ATM withdrawals, debit card transactions and online transfers, said the sheriff. That account was frozen on July 28, with the cooperation of two financial institutions. There is about $9,000 left.
County Board Chairman Richard Brunk briefed the board's finance committee on the issue Thursday evening, August 12 in an emergency meeting.
Brunk said he has requested that the auditor's office employee who was involved in the matter be placed on administrative leave. He also is requesting a forensic audit "to ensure that there have been no other incidents and to identify best practices that will help prevent such incidents moving forward."
Sheriff Bustos said the fraudulent transactions were discovered by a local financial institution.
An investigation is ongoing.
Watch the full press conference below: