While information about why the city lost the money was unclear, Stephenson told council members they would not be given any more information on Thursday. Staff will inform the council “as soon as possible and are subject to any restrictions imposed by the ongoing police investigation,” Stephanson said. Mayor Jim Watson was “concerned to learn of the fraudulent transaction reported by the city’s CFO earlier today,” although no further comment was made as the matter is now under investigation by Ottawa police, according to a statement from his office. “As the matter is now being investigated by the Ottawa police, he will not comment further. The city has been the victim of fraud in the past, when a former city treasurer was the victim of a “whaling” scam by a man posing as the city’s director. A US court heard the man from Florida persuade Marian Simulik to send $ 128,000 to a fake company in July 2018. He was sentenced and sentenced to twelve and a half years in prison. The July 2018 scam was first exposed publicly by former Auditor General Ken Hughes during a presentation to city councilors in April 2019. [email protected] twitter.com/JonathanWilling
