Email Fraudster Hits New Mexico County for $447,000 (Bernalillo County)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1.) Copy of the email that was sent from the fraudster “Carlos Boyd", on or about Oct. 22, 2019 to the Bernalillo County accounts payable department in late 2019 which resulted in a pay out of $447,372 to what they thought was an approved county vendor.

According to a Feb. 24 indictment, Ngeno is alleged to have caused an email to be sent to Bernalillo County on or about Oct. 22, 2019, in the name of “Carlos Boyd,” representing that Boyd was a government accounts coordinator at CDW Government Inc., which supplies information technology equipment, supplies and software to the county.

According to https://www.govtech.com/security/email-fraudster-hits-new-mexico-county-for-447-000:

The “fraudster” was a Kenyan national living in the U.S. on an immigrant visa who is charged with 11 felony counts of wire fraud and conspiracy for his alleged role in the scam, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each count, if convicted.

Oscar Ngeno, 41, appeared remotely before a U.S. Magistrate judge in Albuquerque on March 30. A resident of Rochester, New York, Ngeno was released on $15,000 bond pending trial, surrendered his passport, and must comply with other conditions of release, court records show.

The scheme involved a series of nine payments electronically transferred by Bernalillo County to an account at the Woodforest Bank in Texas allegedly controlled by Ngeno.

Between Oct. 28, 2019, and early December 2019 the total amount transferred was more than $447,000, a federal indictment states. That included a $110,223 transfer on Dec. 4, 2019 — a week after the legitimate vendor contacted the county about its overdue payments and initially got no response, according to Bernalillo County records.

The email requested that Bernalillo County change its payment method from check to ACH, or automated clearing house direct payment to the Woodforest bank.

You can reach me at 716-951-2020.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 15 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Joanne Riford

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the status of my FOIL request originally submitted on 04/27/2022. Thank you so much for your help.