El Paso City Council reps want emails linked to phishing scam released to public

At least a couple of El Paso city council representatives want emails linked to a phishing scam that duped the city out of $3 million released to the public. That could happen as soon as tomorrow.

City officials at first said they were not releasing the emails involving the Camino Real Mobility Authority or CRRMA because of an ongoing FBI investigation.

The stolen money had been intended for the city’s streetcar project.

Phishing is when criminals pose as a legitimate person, business or agency to commit fraud. In this case, a fake vendor used email contracts to scam the city.

At a special City Council meeting today, representatives and the mayor said they are determined to prevent something like this from happening again.

The mayor is asking the city attorney to look into whether the council can become the board to oversee the CRRMA.

Rep. Cortney Niland is for that plan.

“We need to know what checks and balances are in place when they are not good stewards for the money they have been appropriated. Because that it exactly what happened here,” Niland said.

Rep. Jim Tolbert is also asking for the city to release those emails to the public so people can understand the city, the fiscal agent for the CRRMA, was not at fault.

“We can use the excuse of this investigation for over a year, or two years or whatever. And I think the public needs to know. If there is an open records request, I think it should be honored now,” Tolbert said.

Dr. Mark Sutter, the city’s chief financial officer, said the first payment to the phony vendor was for about $300,000 and a second payment was for about $2.9 million. The fraud was detected by the city’s Comptroller’s Office, according to a city news release.

In early October, the comptroller notified the internal auditor the city may have fallen for a phishing scam resulting in about $300,000 lost. Internal controls were placed and law enforcement was notified, according to the city.

A couple of weeks later, during the investigation, the city and the CRRMA found “an additional misdirection of funds” of about $2.9 million, said the release.

Sutter said the city has recovered about half of that money: nearly $1.6 million from the $2.9 million, and $292,000 from the $300,000 payment. El Paso police and the FBI are working on the investigation.

“We were able to work with the banks and law enforcement and were able to get that money back,” said Mayor Oscar Leeser.

City officials won’t reveal how the scam happened, whether it was an oversight or a failure of the vetting system.