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After an attempted fraud that appeared to have cost nearly $700,000, San Benito County has recovered the funds courtesy of Wells Fargo Bank.
According to county Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki, the money was officially back in the county’s account by the morning of Nov. 12.
Kosmicki thanked Wells Fargo for helping recover the funds, noting that losing them would have significantly impacted the county’s already tight finances.
The recovery was the result of weeks of email exchanges and constant communication between Wells Fargo and the county, County Treasurer Melinda Casillas said.
The fraud was first reported on Oct. 16 after the County Administrative Office announced an investigation into a $696,602 payment approved by the Auditor-Controller’s Office. Casillas raised the alarm the day before when she was alerted to a suspicious transaction.
Officials said the payment request came from someone posing as a contractor in a phishing scam, designed to trick victims into revealing sensitive information. That same day, Auditor-Controller Joe Paul Gonzalez released a statement saying the funds had been recovered.
But at a special meeting on Oct. 21, Casillas told the Board of Supervisors that Wells Fargo had reversed the reimbursement because the account that received the funds had been closed. She and Gonzalez told BenitoLink they are unclear about the bank’s process for returning the funds.
What Casillas said they did know was that on the morning of Nov. 10 a pending transaction appeared in the county’s account for the amount that was fraudulently taken; the next day the funds were posted; and the following day the bank verified the payment and closed the claim.
“I’d like to know myself,” Gonzalez said. “But the bank has its own internal processes.”
He added that Wells Fargo had said the investigation could take up to 90 days, but resolved the issue in less than a month.
During the Oct. 21 meeting, the board wrote a letter to the California State Controller’s Office asking for assistance.
Following a $360,000 county library embezzlement case which led to the sentencing of two former library employees last summer, the county requested proposals for an external audit to review internal financial controls and recommend reforms. The results of that process are expected to be announced at the board’s Nov. 18 meeting.
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