COLUMBIA, Mo 2/1/18 (Beat Byte) -- Two Boone County government blunders
will cost taxpayers over $46,000 to cover a fraudulent bank transfer.
Risk insurance won't cover the loss because County officials failed to comply with terms of their policy.
"Law enforcement is currently investigating this case as an
active criminal investigation," a
Jan. 11 letter from Boone County risk management specialist
Angela Wehmeyer explained.
City and county government routinely distribute press releases to report private sector crime, but local media has not reported this incident.
"The loss occurred as a result of the County's treasury administrative activities," Auditor
June Pitchford explained in a
January 9 email to nine people, including County Treasurer
Tom Darrough and the three County Commissioners.
Five weeks -- from October 31 to December 4 -- passed before Darrough processed the transfer, "which appeared to come from a legitimate business contact,"
Emery Sapp and Sons, a Columbia-based road and highway builder with county government contracts, Wehmeyer explained. "The correspondence was later discovered to be fraudulent," but not until
eight days after the transfer, on December 12.
"Based on the current facts as we know them, the status of the investigation/recovery, and the
County's failure to comply with particular requirements of its insurance policy, there is no basis for expecting recovery of assets at this time," Pitchford explained.