California’s Marposa County (KSE E/KGPE) – Officials claimed on Thursday that the City of Fort Lauderdale Police Department in Florida received assistance from the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement organizations, resulting in the recovery of nearly $1 million from a fraud scheme.
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department was allegedly helped by the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office in a fraud that involved the county.
The incident took place on September 14, 2023, and according to officers with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department (FLPD), it was directed towards the City of Fort Lauderdale because of the ongoing building of the new police headquarters.
The finance department of the City of Fort Lauderdale, according to FLPD officers, contacted them when one of their staff members received an email purporting to be from Moss Construction, the company handling the police headquarters project. The worker settled the bill for about $1.2 million.
Officers claim that shortly after learning of the incident, the FLPD’s Economic Crimes investigators set out to find the source of the funds.
The investigation is still ongoing, but according to FLPD officers, they were able to successfully retrieve all of the lost money with the help of the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office. Furthermore, investigators are currently working to identify the perpetrator or potential suspects in this event.
According to officers, schemes like the one in this case can be incredibly complex and intricate, making it potentially very difficult to obtain sufficient evidence to identify and prosecute individuals responsible. They claim that this nationwide construction fraud scam did not just affect Fort Lauderdale.
According to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, additional assistance with the investigation came from the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office, the Mariposa County District Attorney’s Office, the Avondale Police Department in Arizona, and the Lee’s Summit Police Department in Missouri.
