The Boulder Valley School District has added safeguards after a scammer stole about $850,000 of bond construction money using knowledge of public contracts and a forged signature.
The theft, which happened about a year ago, came to the district’s attention when contractor Adolfson and Peterson Construction asked for a payment on a past due account, even though the district had been sending payments.
The work was part of the district’s $576 million bond issue, approved by voters in 2014.
The scam started when the district’s accounts payable department received a call from someone claiming to be with Adolfson and Peterson asking to change the way the company was paid, according to the police report.
The district instructed the person to fill out a form, which was returned with the signature of the company’s chief financial officer. That was later found to be a forgery. The form specified the bank account for the district to send payments as direct deposits.
The email address where the form was sent appeared to be a legitimate one from Adolfson and Peterson, according to the police report.
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