BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — There are a lot of questions on how hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money in Erie County has vanished.
County officials have been looking into the situation.
Mortgage tax is collected by the Erie County Clerk’s Office and then a portion of it is distributed to the state.
The Comptroller’s Office did an audit on how mortgage tax is collected in the clerk’s office in 2022 and found that a check on its way to the state was intercepted and counterfeited.
That check was for over $326,000, made payable to Get Mobile, LLC. Officials aren’t sure if Get Mobile is a real company, but they’re based in Maryland.
“It appears that someone took the original check and copied everything just the same, same check number, same date and same amount and just changed the payee,” Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick said.
Auditors turned the check over to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, which is still investigating the matter.
Both sides disagree on whether the county confirmed the check was cashed and tracked it.