By VDC staff

More than $2.27 million stolen from the Chittenden Solid Waste District in a sophisticated cyber fraud scheme will be returned after federal authorities successfully recovered the money, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont announced Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III signed a forfeiture order on July 2 releasing $2,270,202.39 to the federal government, allowing the funds to be returned to the Chittenden Solid Waste District through the U.S. Marshals Service.

The total amount stolen was about three million dollars, officials say.

According to court documents, the fraud occurred in late January when the district received an email that appeared to come from a construction company working on one of its projects. The email directed CSWD to send future payments to a different bank account.

Believing the request was legitimate, the district transferred two payments totaling more than $3 million to a Citibank account. Investigators later determined the account did not belong to the construction company but was being used as part of an ongoing cyber-enabled fraud scheme.

Working quickly after the theft was reported, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office obtained a civil seizure warrant and froze more than $2.27 million before it could disappear.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan A. Ophardt credited the Chittenden Solid Waste District for immediately notifying law enforcement.

“Recoveries of stolen funds from sophisticated cyber actors are only possible when impacted entities quickly alert law enforcement about their losses,” Ophardt said. “Because of CSWD’s actions in the wake of the phishing scam, we were able to seize and return over $2 million dollars to CSWD, a benefit to all residents of Chittenden County.”

FBI Albany Special Agent in Charge Craig L. Tremaroli said business email compromise and payment diversion scams remain among the most common cyber threats facing organizations.

“Thanks to the quick reporting from Chittenden Solid Waste District, our team was able to immediately get to work to recover the transactions and return a substantial portion of the stolen funds,” Tremaroli said, urging victims of similar frauds to contact law enforcement immediately.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia A. P. Cowles handled the civil forfeiture case on behalf of the government. While more than $2.27 million has been recovered, the original fraudulent transfers exceeded $3 million, meaning not all of the stolen money was recovered.