NC Treasurer: State working to recover $2.7 million lost in fraud scheme
WRAL News has learned the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency (NCHFA) lost $2.7 million to fraud.
According to the NCHFA, the Agency was the target of an "isolated cyber incident" in mid-April, which resulted in the transfer of funds into a fraudulent account.
The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency is a self-supporting public agency that provides safe, affordable housing opportunities to enhance the quality of life of North Carolinians. Since its creation by the General Assembly, the Agency has financed more than 298,860 affordable homes and apartments, totaling $29.16 billion, according to its website.
The NCHFA said the incident has not and will not impact the funding available for homeowners.
North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell confirmed the amount of money fraudulently taken and said multiple agencies are currently working to recover the money.
“There are a lot of hard-working state employees, state FBI agents and cybersecurity folks across the state government who are working hard to stop this,” Folwell said. “I fully expect that there will be either a partial or full recovery of this money.”
This is the second time in nearly a month WRAL News has learned a state agency was the target of a fraud scheme.
In June, WRAL News learned the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction was the target of a phishing scam, resulting in $165,431 being sent to a fraudulent bank account, according to a recent state auditor’s investigative report.
Most of the money from that scam was recovered.
Despite the fraud, Folwell stressed that the NCHFA is still safe to trust with getting affordable housing.
"This system is still solid. That's true yesterday, that's true today and it's going to be true tomorrow," Folwell said. "My experience is that anytime one of these is investigated by the State Bureau of Investigations, they found little tools and little keys they can use to possibly solve other types of situations, or prevent them from occurring."
