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A fraudulent pay request for construction services made to Chambers County has “resulted in a potential loss of $864,079.47,” according to an incident report filed on Thursday, March 13, by the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office.

 

The report states that the request was related to the ongoing construction project at the Chambers County Courthouse. The offense on the report is listed as aggravated theft of county public funds by deception, a felony.

 

The $864,079.47, which was to be one of several payments for construction services, came from the county’s ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds. 

 

According to Skip McCoy, the county attorney, email communications had been intercepted between the county engineer Josh Harvill, county manager Regina Chambers and the construction company and a third-party administrator over the construction project. 

 

“The Chambers County Commission is committed to pursuing all criminal and civil prosecutions necessary in order to recoup the funds for the citizens of Chambers County,” McCoy said. 

 

The report narrative reads, “Harvill stated that beginning March 3rd, 2025, a fraudulent pay request was presented for payment to the County Engineer and County Manager…The fraudulent pay request included correspondence with the County’s contractor and 3rd party administrator. All fraudulent communication was conducted via email.” 

 

McCoy said that one of the parties’ systems was compromised, and the fraudulent party began giving illegitimate instructions regarding payment for part of the construction. The county had received multiple pay requests prior to this time, which had been confirmed as legitimate. 

 

The emails received during the fraud had appeared to be “standard,” said McCoy. The fraudulent instruction was that the payment be made by wire transfer, which had not been done in the previous payment requests. 

 

Following Monday’s Commission meeting, the board went into executive session to discuss potential litigation involving the theft. 

 

When they reconvened, McCoy made a recommendation to the Commission that in her capacity as county manager, Chambers “retain a Forensic IT Examiner in regards to the administration of the Commission’s financial affairs.”

 

The Commission approved the motion unanimously, with the exception of Commissioner Debra Riley, who was not present at the meeting. 

 

According to McCoy, the Forensic IT Examiner was employed in order to investigate how the fraudulent party was able to intercede in the county communications, whether it was from the County’s system, the construction company or the architect’s system. He added that the county has filed both criminally and civilly to investigate the matter. 

 

The county is seeking to recoup the lost funds through criminal investigation and civil litigation. 

“Insurance availability could come from numerous sources…based on what type of cyber insurance each one of the entities has. Our objective is to proceed to not only civilly trying to recoup the money, but criminally prosecuted too,” McCoy said.