MOBILE, Ala. (NBC 15) — Mobile Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis city staff missed multiple warning signs before $14.7 million intended for the Regions Arena contractor was sent to a fraudulent account. He says the city’s investigation found finance department staff failed to follow verification procedures and did not act on concerns as the contractor’s payment information changed.
“Frankly, this fraud should have been caught. The red flags were everywhere, and they were not chased down,” said Cheriogotis.
The first red flag was the initial email sent to the city in May from a person claiming to be with contractor BL Harbert. Cheriogotis says it included the correct logo and company web address but included additional characters to the standard ‘blharbert.com’ email address. Cheriogotis says the first change to the contractor’s banking information was made in the city’s internal system on May 27. He says the impersonator also requested multiple invoices and other information the contractor would already have. To justify the requests, the impersonator explained BL Harbert was going through an audit…