Whoops! Comptroller authorized more than $2 million for scammer

                                                                              



Remember when Nassau Comptroller Jack Schnirman announced in January that a scammer had made off with $710,000 in taxpayer money last year but he  -- with the help of the Nassau police department -- got the money back?  

Well, the amount scammed by a fraudster impersonating a county vendor was actually more than double that amount.

According to a report on the incident by Nassau Inspector General Jodi Franzese, posted on her website today, her investigators found that the comptroller's office "authorized 11 payments totaling $2,095,813.92 to a bank account controlled by the fraudster on seven dates in September and October 2019."

Schnirman didn't catch it, according to Franzese, the bank did.

After receiving a fraud notification unrelated to Nassau County, the bank "on its own initiative" froze the scammer's account after eight payments totaling $710,955.92 had been deposited in it, she wrote.

"The bank's action caused the rejection of the remaining $1,384,858 in pending comptroller approved payments, thereby preventing the successful diversion of this larger amount of county funds to the fraudsters account," Franzese wrote.

At the time of the bank freeze, the fraudulent account contained only $608, 606 but the county was ultimately able to recover all the money that had been deposited, Franzese said.

The Inspector general's office also determined that "although the fraud was committed via the use of email, it did not constitute a technological cyber-attack on the county's IT infrastructure."

Franzese said that her investigators determined that internal control's in Schnirman's office at the time were not effective in preventing fraud and staff were not trained at spotting it. She said the comptroller has since improved controls.

Don't forget that Schnirman, an elected Democrat  who took office in Jan. 2018, just announced he's running for reelection next year -- at the same time fellow Democrat, County Executive Laura Curran is up for re-election.

 

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