Madison County caught a break. Sheriff Randy Tucker said the county will recover at least $2.2 million of the $2.7 it lost to a bogus vendor recently. The Sheriff announced the news at the regular meeting of the Madison County Board of Supervisors this morning.
County Comptroller Na'son White sent three payments totaling $2.7 million in March and February to a thief posing as Hemphill Construction. A "Jay Hemphill" emailed a request to send Hemphill's payments to a different bank. White fell for the scam and issued the payments. The comptroller called to verify the request but failed to notice the suspect's thick Middle-Eastern accent. The fraud was discovered when Hemphill Construction inquired about its payment for its work on the Reunion Parkway Project.
Sheriff Tucker said the county is in the process of covering two payments for $128,000 and $1.58 million. Another $500,000 was discovered in a frozen account this morning. The Sheriff said he is working to recover those funds as well. He said there was no criminal intent among any Madison County employees.
The $128,000 has been recovered and returned to the county.
Synopsis
A person purporting to be Jay Hemphill of Hemphill Construction
Company emailed the purchasing clerk for Madison County. The clerk
forwarded the email to County Comptroller Na'Son White. The county has a
contract with Hemphill Construction to build Reunion Parkway Phase
III. However, Jay Hemphill has been deceased for over 30 years and no
Hemphill has been at the company in over 40 years.
The email stated what was owed and directed the county to send payments to a different bank account. The email contained multiple misspellings. The comptroller called to confirm and spoke to a man with a thick Middle-Eastern accent in Germany. (Yes, your reading comprehension is working just fine.).
"Jay" sent legitimate Hemphill invoices and used an email address that used a ".com" address instead of ".us."
The county sent the following payments:
2-21-24: $128,990
3-13-24: $1,073,870
3-15-24: $1,538,383
Total: $2,741,244
White tried to send another payment to "Jay" on March 11 but Renasant Bank returned the payment. She notified "Jay" of the return. "Jay" sent her new payment instructions. White graciously sent the March 15 payment ($1,583,383).
The scam was detected when Hemphill Construction
called to inquire about its payment. One can imagine what took place
on the phone. The County Comptroller claims she paid Hemphill. Hemphill
says no, you never paid us. The fraud was discovered but not before
Madison County lost $2.7 million.
The Attorney General, State Auditor, FBI, and Secret Service are assisting with the investigation.
40 comments:
Praise God for the recovery!
Does it really matter if there is criminal intent? $2.5 million dollars lost due to incompetence should get the folks responsible fired.
Can Na'son cover the $500,000 shortfall?
It is a good thing that Madison County wasn't tasked with trying to make the recovery on its own.
Don't know the Madison County comptroller from Adam's house cat but what ever she has on the MCBOS must be some strong stuff for her to keep her job.
This good news is because of our great Attorney General.
Because this has occurred, I bet Na'son won't get a Christmas card from Jay this year---
Hmm... Lynn Fitch or Randy Tucker "for your $$$"...
In private industry, you do not keep your job for "falling for a $2.7 million scam." -- no matter what excuse, no matter what the story. The excuse doesn't matter -- it's $2.7 million and you failed in your responsibility to safeguard those funds. Failed to notice an accent. If Madison County doesn't fire White, it's just further evidence about what people think about the different standards for public and private employees.
@2:21 PM - There may have been a casting couch involved in the hiring process. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
@2:21 PM This situation is analogous to that scenario in Atlanta between the DA and the special prosecutor. Wink, wink.
Na'Son White needs to be fired even if Madison gets the money back.
Taxpayers can't afford this type of total incompetence. Come election day make your feelings known. Dump the whole bunch! If h is not fired than Madison is worse than Jackson.
don't believe any of that crap till you see the money.
OMG, that means every resident in Madison County has recovered $6.00 dollars.
Sheriff hasn’t done sh@@ …
Went fishing probably.
He’s the messenger on any update from others who are getting it all done.
Mr. Administrator said these “fraud” payments went through 4 or 5 individuals-
Did anyone think at any time to pick up the phone and call the Real Hemphill ??
Did they?
One call/ takes one person and there is / was the answer…
This is embarrassing to me- not sure how all of you feel about it
Who did Madison County taxpayers elect to ultimately be responsible for the expenditure of their taxes? The comptroller?
Na’son or however you spell the name needs to be removed. Thanks but no thanks for your service.
Were the “legitimate” payments scheduled payments that matched? If so how did “Jay” know the amounts?
Is Na’son White even a real person? Not one photograph of a person by that name, on the internet. Strange to me that someone with the authority to make such decisions has eluded all cameras.
Sheriff hopes it will be returned. Until it is actually deposited into the account do not count on it.most goes through the Bank of Mellon in NY, I believe. Whether the intent was there or not for the employee is no excuse. That is criminal with taxpayers $$$
7:22 I know you're dumb and all that but if you read the previous posts you would know 1) that Mr. Hemphill died about 40 years ago, and 2) this was confirmed when someone called the company that still bears his name........
There is an obvious way to deal with this, and I'm shocked no one has suggested it. Na'son the "please to be sending us an electrical checking instrument" gal needs to go to MHSAA, someone from MHSAA can start fielding (pardon the pun) calls and handling money for Madison County, Sheriff Dipshit can join Na'son as enforcement agent and start beating up wayward track athletes, Princess Trooper moves to Sheriff of MadCo, etc., etc., etc. The problem isn't that these incompetent motherfuckers are where they are, it is clearly that they don't move around quite enough to really and truly fuck things up enough for average folks to really get serious about flushing the civic toilet.
Need to go back to two signatures and a check
A company would FIRE yr butt, but when u in the free tax money company, seems yr a solid player no matter how bad of a job u do!!
King - this also happened in spring, 2019. Here is what happened . . . Exec Dir. sent HR an email to change paycheck to new routing number. HR forwarded message to payroll.
A little later - Exec Dir back to HR - where is my paycheck?
Oops!
Now, anyone changing a bank routing number must HAND-DELIVER a canceled check to HR.
Problem solved.
Go check your vault for Spring 2019 and see if you wrote this up.
How did the thief get the information on the unpaid invoices? It had to be from 1) a hack of either the Madison County computer system or Hemphill's, or 2) an insider with either entity. Hopefully they are tracking this down as well.
Probably watched the claims docket. The Board approves the claims docket. All this took place after claim approved.
White DID call to verify the form. But the dumbass used the number in the email and spoke to the Middle-Eastern dude.
Was this Na'son's first day on the internet??
Good to know we are recovering some money back, but of course we are probably spending $50,000.00 on expenses trying to accomplish this which we will never get back. I guess that is the cost of doing business while being run by under educated representatives.
I can't get past the middle eastern dude voice. At what point does a red flag NOT go flying up the pole? This one just dumbfounds me. There is so much out there that talks about flags for scammers. I just can't imagine different bank acct info being a flag and calling the actual vendor, not the number off the suspicious invoice. Just shaking my head. At this point, the only thing missing is the middle eastern dude saying he's a prince and if you take his check, deposit it, and send him cash, you'll be rewarded.....
This was not done without insider help. I live here and pay taxes here. GOGETTHEM!!!!
She won’t be fired. She is a close friend of one of the three Democrats on the Board of Supervisors. That’s why she got the job in the first place.
Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!
@12:13PM Have you ever heard of social engineering?
Wasn't Na'son the Controller at Hazlehurst Schools when their board was using credit cards at the casinos?
According to Linkedin, she was.
"The sheriff said there was no criminal intent..."
Please give us a clue as to how the high-sherf arrived at that conclusion. No, wait! That's what Steen told him, so it has to be true.
You people just hold off a minute. The incompetent employee will be sent to a seminar about this type of thing. It's up to her to choose between Silver Star, Natchez and the Gulf Coast.
Look for it on an upcoming agenda.
@ 4:06 - or first class to Paris.
Who woke the sheriff up?
I'm just glad the sheriff is on it and has assured the taxpayers that the money will be recovered. His investigative skills are amazing.
First thing you know, one of his prisoners will be whuppin' shit out of his female lunchroom attendant.
Who's on first? Madison County government is a circus-clown's dream.
Should we all assume that the remaining $500K was a donation to Warnock's legal fund?
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