Frederick’s Mayor Says Investigation Into Fraud Continuing

The fraud is connected with the building being renovated  for a new police department headquarters.Frederick, Md (KM) The investigation of the fraud case regarding the City of Frederick over the retrofitting of the William Donald Schaefer Building as a new police department headquarters is continuing.Mayor Michael O’Connor spoke about that on Tuesday during WFMD’s “Morning News Express.” He didn’t say too much, but noted that all efforts  are being taken to makes sure this doesn’t happen again. “The problem with these kinds of schemes is bad guys are clever,” he said.The city lost more than $280,000 in this scam. “We can put a lot of protections in place and that’s what we try and do,:” Mayor O’Connor said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t  be a victim again, but we’re going to do  everything in our power to not be.”On the “Morning News Express” a few weeks ago, Frederick Police Chief Jason Lando said  this case has been turned over to the Maryland State Police which have the resources to investigate fraud cases like these.No details about this case have been released.However, the work to retrofit the William Donald Schaefer Building into a police department headquarters continues. The department currently occupies space at the County Court House, and it’s getting a little cramped at that location.The Mayor also addressed concerns about the company which screens e-mails for the city. He says Frederick’s e-mail system was not affected by news about that company. “Apparently, on the vendor’s side, there was some sort of configuration error that allowed for a period of time anyone who had means or need or want to look at e-mails that were coming in to the city’s e-mail system. But they never got to our system. So our system was not compromised,” he said.The company in question is known as Securenace which screens e-mails for the city. One of its goals is to guard against SPAM.By Kevin McManus