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The city of Portland this week recovered $6.7 million in public funds that were stolen this spring in a scam that targeted the Portland Water Bureau.
The U.S. Marshal’s Service returned the funds to the city earlier this week.
As WW previously reported, someone posing as a water bureau contractor managed to convince city staff to route $6.7 million in payments to an unknown bank account. The money was successfully wired to the bank account in April.
The city did not clock the errant payment until Wells Fargo, the bank from which the city’s money was sent to the out-of-state bank account, alerted the city to the peculiar transaction. The FBI and local law enforcement are still investigating the matter as a criminal case, says city spokeswoman Carrie Belding.
“We are grateful for the work of the Portland Police Bureau, FBI, City Attorney’s Office and U.S. Attorney’s Office to help recover these funds,” Belding says. “The matter remains under active criminal investigation, which is anticipated to be lengthy due to the nature of the fraud.”
After learning of the theft, the city in April sued a New York law firm linked to the bank account that accepted payment. The city withdrew the suit soon after, noting that the lawyers at the firm, Raiti PLLC, cooperated with the FBI’s investigation and “provided information supporting that they were also a victim.”
The lawsuit alleged the perpetrator “presented himself as a vendor on one of the city’s high-profile water purification projects, manipulated city representatives into changing the bank account information on file for that vendor, and caused the city to direct a $6.7 million vendor payment to an account of his choosing at JPMorgan Chase Bank.”
