CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. – The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) is actively investigating a sophisticated fraud scheme that targeted the Citrus County School Board (CCSB), resulting in fraudulent transfers totaling $846,864.86.
CCSB officials became aware of the fraud when a trusted vendor reported that an expected payment for a construction project had not been received. The school board’s review confirmed that the payment had been made, but it was later discovered that a fraudulent party had impersonated the vendor’s email and provided a falsified account number. This type of cyber fraud is known as business email compromise (BEC).
Upon discovering the fraudulent transaction, CCSB officials promptly notified the CCSO. “The moment we discovered this was a fraudulent transaction, we immediately contacted our partners at the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office,” said Dr. Scott Hebert, Superintendent of Schools. “Their swift response, along with the expertise of the United States Secret Service, was instrumental in recovering the majority of the stolen funds.”
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Detective Cutlip with the CCSO High-Tech Crimes Unit (HTCU) initiated an investigation and sought assistance from the United States Secret Service (USSS). The CCSO maintains a strong partnership with the USSS and relies on their expertise in complex financial crimes.
Within days of launching the investigation, the USSS successfully identified and froze $779,604.00 in two separate bank accounts located outside of Florida. These funds were later seized. Efforts are ongoing to recover the remaining $67,260.86. Investigators currently believe that the suspect is operating outside of Florida and has no known ties to the CCSB.
Sheriff David Vincent addressed concerns about transparency in the investigation, stating, “As with any criminal case, my priority is to the victims in the case, whether that is a person, business, or government agency. This case could have been a significant financial loss to our local school district; our priority was locating the funds and securing them. Revealing information too early in a complex case like this could have given the suspects the upper hand in realizing we were on to them. While many have argued that transparency was an issue in this case, I would counter that with successful prosecution, protecting victims and recovering stolen property for victims will always be my priority in cases like these. If that means waiting until evidence is secured, property is recovered, and everything wrapped up in a package with a bow for prosecutors, so be it. We cannot thank our Federal Partners at the United States Secret Service enough for their quick actions in this case and for the issuance of seizure warrants on those bank accounts, which occurred today, recovering $779,604k of the $846,864.86 stolen through a malicious phishing email with a legitimate contractor of services.”
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The case remains under active investigation by the CCSO and the USSS. All recovered funds will be returned to the CCSB upon completion of the investigation.
Caroline O’Brien Buster, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service Orlando Field Office, emphasized the importance of collaboration, saying, “This is another example where close cooperation and developing robust partnerships is critical to accomplishing our shared goal of protecting the nation’s financial infrastructure. The immediate investigative actions taken by the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and the Secret Service prevented legitimate funds from getting into the wrong hands. We are thankful for our partnership with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, and together with our law enforcement partners we will continue to investigate and pursue those who engage in financial fraud.”
Dr. Hebert addressed the school district’s response, stating, “The security of our financial resources is paramount, as they directly support our students, staff, and schools. We’ve put additional safeguards in place such as updating our incident response plan and make sure we have a clear protocol for how to detect, report, and respond to cyber incidents. We are also providing additional cyber security awareness training for all school district staff and are committed to a safe and secure digital environment to prevent future attacks. Again, we appreciate the dedication of law enforcement in protecting our district and our community.”
The CCSO urges anyone with information about the case to contact them or submit a tip anonymously through Crime Stoppers of Citrus County at 1-866-ANY-TIPS (269-8477).
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