Was UW-P scam preventable? Ex-employee, university differ as to level processes in place to thwart fraud

From The Journal Times.com

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TERRY FLORES Lee Newspapers 

 KENOSHA — A former University of Wisconsin-Parkside employee believes an email phishing scam which defrauded the institution of more than $300,000 could have been prevented.

The college was lacking formal written processes in place for detecting such fraud at the time it occurred, according to Debi Rigney, former lead accounts payable specialist in the university’s business services department.

Rigney quit her job last month after 5½ years after she claims she was placed on “unpaid suspension” for five days in late July and issued a performance improvement plan after the university was defrauded.

According to documents related to her suspension, which Rigney shared with the Kenosha News, university officials faulted her for not developing “clear, secure and effective” accounts payable processes that they said directly led to the breach.

The university learned of the scam June 19 when a bank notified it of an issue with a new account. According to the university, an employee had changed the bank account routing numbers of two UW System vendors, after having been fooled by the email phishing scam.

According to Rigney’s personnel documents, an investigation determined that the banking information was changed by a Parkside graduate between May 1 and May 14, for two different vendors for the amounts of $125,000 and $190,000. The requests were then placed in an accounts payable box.

Rigney, who was on family medical leave at the time the scam occurred, said another employee had covered for her while she was gone.

According to the document, the employee reportedly followed what the employee believed the process to be for receiving and making vendor requested changes. That employee was also punished, Rigney claimed.

Read more:  https://journaltimes.com/news/local/was-uw-p-scam-preventable-ex-employee-university-differ-as/article_27e234cd-92e1-58ab-b048-0927c35c3865.html