'Tis the season...for Nigerian princes and other scoundrels, 'twould seem.
A little over three weeks ago, I told you all how our next-door-neighbor city - Mobile, AL - had been scammed out of $15 million in a clever construction firm sleight of hand related to the building of their new downtown arena project.
...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.
At the time, no one was quite how the money wound up going out to wherever it went, but you could tell the mayor was snortin' fire.
This part is important - to their credit, the city came clean on the theft nearly the second the relatively new mayor found out. Even though, as he said, they didn't have much more information than 'We was robbed and might have done it to our ownselves.'
Well, true to his word, Mayor Cheriogotis was back in front of cameras two days ago with a detailed update on the 'what happened.'
The fraud began with communications in late May, when someone impersonating the project’s contractor, BL Harbert, requested changes to the company’s banking information, News 5 has learned.
The request didn’t just involve new account and routing numbers, Cheriogotis said. The scammer also directed the city to send payments to an entirely different bank than the one BL Harbert has been using.
And it's kind of amazing how dense the Mobile employees were who handled the exchange through every step of what turned out to be a textbook fraud.
It could have been avoided about a dozen times.
What also has completely frosted his chops is the fact that he and the city's executive finance director were not informed of the issue until nine days after the legitimate construction firm called looking for their payment.
...On October 7, the city learned the legitimate contractor did not receive the regular $14.7 million monthly payment. Cheriogotis says the problem was not elevated to him and Executive Finance Director Logan Gewin until October 16.
Completely unacceptable.
Mobile's Executive Finance Director is relatively new to the job, as well, and has been implementing and upgrading security procedures since he came on board in April. They've already paid off once in an understaffed, overworked office.
...The city has previously stopped a separate fraud attempt involving more than $900,000 in August.
Following that incident, officials implemented stricter written procedures for verifying banking and vendor information changes.
However, the mayor acknowledged there were still opportunities to catch the October fraud, even with those new procedures in place.
“The red flags were everywhere, and they were not chased down,” said Cheriogotis.
One employee has been fired, while two others remain on paid administrative leave.
But there's still so much to be done for the city of over two hundred thousand people.
The headlines have been brutal for Mobile's new administration.
Mobile’s $14.7 million fraud loss may be largest to ever hit US city
I mean, ouch.
Mobile’s loss of $14.7 million may be the largest publicly documented fraudulent vendor-payment scheme to ever hit a U.S. city.
...The details of the scheme, released Tuesday, illustrate how the loss of the money, nearly as much as some smaller cities’ annual budgets, began months ago after an unknown criminal established a working relationship with a city employee.
'Nearly as much as some smaller cities' annual budget'?
A small town in Middlesex County, New Jersey, was scammed out of $26 million through wire transfer fraud. https://t.co/7qtAGh4uOT
— KYW Newsradio - NOW ON 103.9 FM! (@KYWNewsradio) November 9, 2026
The five craven Democrats running the cozy little 4,000-person burg of Cranbury, NJ, with a $16 million annual budget must have read that and thought, 'Well, hold our microbrewskis, you Gomers.'
Cranbury Township reports $26 million wire transfer theft
Officials say the money was intended to purchase property for affordable housing in the township.
...Cranbury Township Police and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office are investigating, with support from state and federal law enforcement.
Investigators froze nearly $17 million of the stolen funds.
It’s unclear how the theft happened or who is responsible. The investigation remains ongoing.The mayor and Township Committee expressed in the post that they are taking residents' concerns seriously.
They plan to introduce new township positions at their Monday Committee meeting, including "Assistant Township Administrator" and "Assistant Chief Financial Officer" to bolster Cranbury's financial oversight for the future. They are also beginning operations to hire a municipal accounting firm.
The city leaders released a self-serving statement all about how 'communicating openly and honestly' with their citizens is one of their greatest responsibilities, even when the news is 'under difficult circumstances.'
The township of Cranbury, with an annual budget of $16 million, just sacrificed $26 million at the altar of affordable housing by wiring it to the wrong people. https://t.co/Hkd0h7sZib
— Joe Colangelo (@Itsjoeco) November 7, 2026
Which was all fine and good, until Cranbury residents found out that the open and transparent leadership had sat on news of the monstrous theft until AFTER the November 3 elections.
NJ town loses $26M - and Dems sat on theft until after Election Day https://t.co/ZQG4SdT8hc https://t.co/skNINfLDGo
— New York Post (@nypost) November 7, 2026
Radio silence from Mayor Openly and Honestly for FIVE WEEKS. Until she got her chosen candidate safely elected.
A New Jersey township lost a staggering $26 million in a fraudulent wire transfer — but residents are furious that Democratic officials waited until three days after Election Day to disclose the massive theft.
Cranbury Township Mayor Lisa Knierim announced the theft in a Nov. 6 Facebook post, calling it a “sophisticated financial incident.”
“One of the most important responsibilities of our Township Committee is to communicate openly and honestly with the community we serve, particularly when faced with difficult circumstances,” Knierim said.
...But the bombshell announcement came three days after the Nov. 3 election, when Democrat Thomas Szczur Jr., Knierim’s preferred candidate, won over Republican Carol Haring, 63% to 37%, meaning Democrats’ 5-0 stranglehold over the Township Committee stayed intact.
The mayor’s announcement offered no explanation for why residents were kept in the dark for more than five weeks about the theft.
Imagine your NJ town lost $26M to fraudsters and your mayor hid it during an election? That's exactly what happened in Cranbury, it's absolutely ridiculous 🤬 and don't forget this is the same town council that tried to take Andy's farm just last year https://t.co/bXQb50lLZI
— Wake Up NJ 🇺🇸 New Jersey (@wakeupnj) November 8, 2026
And, yes - that 'farm' mention might ring a bell. It's the same yuppie little city council I wrote about that tried to eminent-domain seize a heritage family farm for 'affordable housing,' until social media exploded on them. Even Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins wound up getting involved.
Naturally, in progressive hellhole fiefdoms, losing money always means spending more.
@OneJerseySchorr Lol! Never let a crisis go to waste. The Democrats running Cranbury wire out $26 million to fraudsters & now they are going to use that as an excuse to add 2 new municipal employees to the payroll. Bunch of crooks!
— Izengabe (@Izengabe_) November 8, 2026
Running a city as a Democrat is a pretty schweet gig, tell you what.
Cranbury residents interviewed by the NY Post and local news outlets seem kind of irate at Mayor Openly and Honestly's lack of forthcomingness.
The one bright spot is that a smidge over $17 million of the total is reported to be 'frozen.' That doesn't mean it's recoverable yet, but there's hope for it.
And while Mobile might still be out more money in the long run, the city is off the map for the largest wire scam crown in no time flat.
That's another MERRY NEW YEAR!
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