Fraudster spent months posing as B.L. Harbert before Mobile sent $14.7 million to the wrong account

The contact started in late May with false documents sent to the finance department, ENR reported after reviewing recordings of the Oct. 27 meetings. Over the following months the impostor used the names of real people in emails, calls and document exchanges. About two months in, a city employee passed a real Harbert invoice to the fake contact, which officials said made the requests look legitimate to supervisors. Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis said the address and bank details on file were changed without proper verification.

Monthly arena payments had run the same way for about 18 months. Harbert asked about the missing money on Oct. 7. Hurricane Isaias hit the Gulf Coast two days later, and the contractor asked again on Oct. 13. City leaders discovered the theft on Oct. 16, and Mobile disclosed the loss Oct. 20. One employee was fired and two were put on leave. The FBI and Secret Service are investigating, and the city says its systems were not breached.

Mobile caught a separate diversion in August within about two days and got the money back, FOX10 reported. The city tightened its rules for vendor changes after that, but the Harbert record had already been altered in May. In Arab, Alabama, someone posing as FITE Building Co. redirected $432,739 for a recreation center, and the city recovered $431,819 by moving fast, according to ENR. Mobile paid Harbert from about $15 million in owner contingency within the $300 million arena budget and is trying to get the money back through police and insurers. Vendor changes now get a review by the finance director and a check with known contacts at the company.