Seriously.
I was not expecting to see something like this news from the neighbors over the state line this morning, but...whoa, dawg.
When the grift hits, it can hit good and hard, huh?
Alabama city scammed out of nearly $15 million
The city of Mobile has revealed that it may have lost more than $14.7 million after being targeted in “a criminal scheme.”
In a sparse announcement made late Tuesday, the administration of Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis said that the scheme resulted in the transfer of the money to “a fraudulent entity.”
“As soon as the fraud was identified, the City notified the FBI and the Secret Service, and this matter is now under active investigation,” said the statement.
YOICKS
And then there was radio silence for hours. I could not find out a single detail.
Probably because everyone at City Hall was wandering around with paper bags over their heads, but still. Someone could tell somebody sumpthin'.
And Mobile's been doing so well lately. Airbus is humming along; they're moving the city's airport from where it was buried on the west side of town (on the absolutely worst boulevard in the city to get there), right down on the waterfront, snug up to the Airbus facility. The old Brookley Field was a military base (Air Force) that opened in 1940, closed for good in 1969, and was turned back over to the city. It lay there fallow for decades, only being used sporadically for hurricane relief and such things, until Airbus came to town, and, even when they lost the Air Force tanker contract, decided to stay and build jets.
It's been gangbusters ever since, and it helped Mobile hit the map. It makes perfect sense for the airport to move downtown with a field already there, and with industries like Austal shipbuilding (they recently had an ownership change, I believe), some steel concerns coming to the north side of town, Amtrak service, plus a brand new Mobile Bay Bridge in the works, sky's the limit.
Downtown is undergoing a renaissance, too, which has been desperately needed. The old round Mobile convention center was finally torn down, and a spiffy new venue is in the process of being built. It turns out this 'Regions Center,' rising at the site of the old Convention Center, is at the heart of the missing moolah.
THIS IS BAD, AND NOTHING I CAN SAY WILL MAKE IT GOOD TODAY
All that money went out in a single transaction.
AY DIOS MIO
The city of Mobile says a financial scam led to the transfer of $14.7 million to bad actors earlier this month. Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis says he learned Friday about the fraud and revealed it was a single transaction tied to the ongoing arena project. Cheriogotis would not say whether the city was targeted in a vendor impersonation scam, but he confirmed it was not a ransomware attack.
The mayor assured citizens the city wasn't being 'held hostage,' although I bet he wishes they were.
This is just nuts.
And it's going to eat a huge chunk of the money the city had set aside for rainy-day contingencies on the project.
...The $300 million Regions Arena project includes a $31 million reserve for unforeseen problems. Cheriogotis says this was not a contingency they ever expected.
"But it is the contingency that we've experienced. So, the arena construction will continue. It will be completed. Even with this incredibly painful dollar amount, we still expect it to be within budget," said Cheriogotis.
The mayor says the FBI and Secret Service were notified as soon as the city discovered the fraud, and federal authorities are currently investigating. He says the city has engaged a nationally recognized law firm to help investigate and a forensic firm to conduct an audit of the city's finances and procedures. The city is also seeking to recover the money through insurance, though the mayor says it will not make the city whole.
The question on everyone's tongue is, 'How'd that much money go out in one fell swoop? '
'Don't know' seems to be the answer.
..."You know, I can't talk about those specific details right now. One instruction I have currently put in place is that if a check has two commas in it, it needs to be a check hand delivered. It is no longer wired or electronically transmitted, as far as I am concerned and the city is concerned. There are additional measures that were in place. You know, whether all of those were followed or not is not something we're willing to talk about at this time. It is obviously something that we're very concerned with and investigating," replied Cheriogotis.
Cheriogotis did say they were 'very aware' of what had happened once they began investigating.
...During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Cheriogotis released several new details about the scam, in which $14.7 million was taken from the city.
He said the city is “very aware” of what happened internally after beginning its investigation.
Barn door, meet horse, but it's a start.
Hopefully not a case of a '12345' password-protected accou...nah.
No one's that sketchy or stupid.
Right?
🇩🇰 A hacker reportedly accessed Denmark's national identity database using the password "123456," exposing the personal information of 8.8 million people. The breach compromised names, addresses, and national identification numbers after the hacker gained access through a private IT company authorized to use the government database. The intrusion went undetected for days until an unusually large invoice exposed suspicious activity.
— NewsForce (@Newsforce) October 15, 2026
...The breach compromised names, addresses, and national identification numbers after the hacker gained access through a private IT company authorized to use the government database.
The intrusion went undetected for days until an unusually large invoice exposed suspicious activity.
At 9:35, a local reporter asks the mayor if this is a case of someone impersonating one of the contracting vendors on the Regions project, and, while he doesn't really give an answer, it does deepen the mystery even more.
A single transaction, no ransom, almost fifteen million dollars out the door to be discovered after the fact...?
MERRY NEW YEAR!!
...to somebody.