ATHENS, Ohio — In mid-November, the city of Athens sent almost $722,000 to a bank account it thought belonged to the contractor for the new fire station headquarters on Stimson Avenue.
It didn’t — and now the city is taking steps to make sure the money doesn’t disappear.
On Wednesday afternoon, the city filed a civil suit against the unknown perpetrators in Athens County Court of Common Pleas and asked the court to freeze the account holding the funds.
According to the city’s complaint, the “cyber criminals” emailed the city on Nov. 14, pretending to be Pepper Construction. The city sent them an electronic payment authorization form, which they completed.
”The cyber criminals, purporting to be Contractor, … requested funds be sent from CITY’S bank account at JP Morgan Chase Bank to an account held at Republic Bank & Trust Company,” the complaint states.
Republic Bank & Trust, based in Louisville, operates banks in five states, including Ohio.
According to the complaint, the city transferred $721,976.26 to the Republic account on Nov. 18, thinking it was paying Pepper Construction. The complaint does not state when the city discovered the deception.
The city asked the court for an injunction freezing the Republic Bank account “to prevent the fraudulent and unlawful use of said funds while CITY undertakes necessary steps to have said funds returned to CITY,” the complaint states.
“All we know is what’s in the lawsuit, so we really can’t comment on that,” said City Prosecutor Jesse Branner Hittle.
She did not know “off the top of my head” when the theft was discovered. Branner Hittle declined further comment, citing active litigation.
City council member Jeff Risner, 2nd Ward — who chairs the council’s Finance and Personnel committee — said the council was informed of the suit in executive session at the end of its Dec. 2 meeting. He was absent from the meeting, so he learned of both the theft and the lawsuit on Tuesday morning, he said.
The Independent has submitted a public records request for the city’s correspondence with the perpetrators, as well as documentation of invoices from and payments to Pepper Construction. Those requests are pending.
City Accounts Payable Clerk Jessica Covert declined to comment. City council members referred questions to Athens City Law Director Lisa Eliason, who was unavailable Thursday morning, or Assistant Service Safety Director Andrew Chiki, who did not respond to a voicemail in time for publication. A message left for Treasurer Josh Thomas also was not returned in time for publication.
This story was updated at 10:13 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, to include comment from City Prosecutor Jesse Branner Hittle. It was updated again at 11:21 a.m. to include comment from council member Jeffrey Risner.
Let us know what's happening in your neck of the woods!
Get in touch and share a story!
