Erie County Attorney Michael Siragusa has asked local prosecutors to investigate the clear “criminal activity.”
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Someone using fake email addresses and inside information was able to fraudulently get more than $100,000 in taxpayer money sent to a bank account in Texas by posing as a local construction company that was owed money by Erie County.
According to a letter from Erie County Attorney Michael Siragusa as well as interviews with other key players, the Comptroller’s Office paid $108,014.99 to a “fictitious entity,” although Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw disputes that his office was responsible for performing due diligence before sending out the payment.
Mark Cerrone, Inc. was owed the six-figure payout for doing work at the Rath Building in Downtown Buffalo.
On Aug. 2, someone emailed the county claiming to be the construction company. The messages asked the county to make the payment to a different bank. Someone — though it’s not clear who — did not catch that the emails were from fraudulent and misspelled @markecrrone.com email addresses rather than @markcerrone.com, which is the company’s actual website.
Also, nobody verified the banking information before sending the cash. There are conflicting stories on who failed to make sure the…
