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Sudbury recovers part of $1.5M taken by fraudsters

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Greater Sudbury has managed to recover just more than $1 million of the $1.5 million the city was duped into sending to thieves.

The city discovered the fraud in December when it realized the money it thought had transferred to a contractor working on a Lorraine Street housing project actually went to a fraudulent account.

It emerged later that the contractor’s email had been hacked and the fraudsters managed to convince staff at Greater Sudbury that the business had new banking information.

The city accepted the new bank info and sent payment, unaware they weren’t dealing with the actual contractor.

The project in question is the troubled Lorraine Street transitional housing project. The contractor who was doing the work, Nomodic Modular Structures, went bankrupt and the work was given to Flex Modular last November.

But the email of a senior project manager at Flex was hacked and city staff were convinced to use new banking info to send payment in December.

When Flex asked the city a week later where their money was, the fraud was discovered. The city then began a court action to have the banks involved trace the money.

The city said Friday it had recovered $1,044,259.13. The city still hopes to recover more of the funds and the matter returns to court March 6.

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