El Paso streetcar project victim of $2.9M scam
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The company overseeing the Downtown streetcar project left a voice message inquiring about a missed payment with a city employee who had retired months prior, possibly delaying the discovery of a $2.9 million "phishing" scam.
The El Paso Times (http://bit.ly/2jIq45c ) reports the city in December released emails that showed that a representative of the lead contractor on the streetcar project, Paso del Norte Trackworks, had contacted the executive director of the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, Raymond Telles, and an unidentified city employee in September about a missing $2.9 million payment.
City officials have criticized Telles for not notifying the city of the missing payment, but have been mum about their own employee.
But on Tuesday, the city issued a statement that briefly said that the city employee had retired in July, two months before the trolley contractor left a message about the missing payment. City officials declined to answer any question from the El Paso Times about the revelation, including when the city discovered the message and whether the city had policies for tracking voicemail or email messages sent to departed employees.
Read more: http://www.lmtonline.com/news/texas/article/Report-El-Paso-streetcar-project-victim-of-2-9M-10853157.php
