Donald Spencer has explained what he knows about a $852,983.06 theft of payment to a vendor.
On Friday April 5, 2024, our agency (Santa Rosa County Clerk of Courts) was notified that a recent payment to a vendor in the amount of $852,983.06 had been intercepted as a result of fraud. Upon notification our Finance Department issued a fraud alert to our bank.
Based on our initial investigation it appears that the vendor has been a victim of business email compromise, ultimately allowing the fraudster to redirect payment for services from the vendor’s account to a fraudulent account. The vendor has acknowledged that their email has been compromised. The Clerk of Court’s data systems have not been hacked or compromised, nor were funds stolen from our office. All policy and procedures were followed during this transaction.
The Clerk’s office has been working with the Milton Police Department, Truist Bank, and Regions Bank to recover the funds. We are aware the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are also involved in investigating this matter.
While we have been told that a substantial amount of the funds have been recovered, we do not currently have a total of how much has been recovered. We have been told that it may take 30 to 60 days before we have a clear picture of how much has been recovered.
The above information has been provided by the Santa Rosa County Clerk of Courts office.
