Barton County’s insurance carrier has denied coverage of the funds not recovered after the Treasurer’s Office was scammed out of $48,600 in May, County Administrator Richard Boeckman said Thursday morning.

Boeckman said Employers Mutual Casualty will not cover the remaining $14,239.30. This means the county is just out that money.

However, “the general fund will absorb that loss,” Boeckman said, adding it won’t impact the county’s budget currently in the works. It will be charged to the Treasurer’s Office.

The county does have cyber coverage. But, Boeckman said EMC analyzed the policy and determined that since the county was not hacked, but scammed, it would not make up the difference.

On Thursday, June 2, the Barton County Sheriff’s Office received notification from County Treasurer Kevin Wondra that some of the funds in the recent email scam had been recovered.

In an email received by the Sheriff’s Office, Wondra said a check for $34,360.70 was being sent from Suntrust Bank of Georgia in Atlanta. The treasurer went on to say the difference of $14,239.30 had already been withdrawn by parties on the receiving end of the crime. 

It was at about 9 a.m. Friday, May 13, the Barton County Treasurer’s Office received a series of emails instructing staff to transfer funds by bank wire from the county general fund to the bank. The emails were alleged to have come from the Barton County Administrator’s Office.  

Then, on Monday, May 16, $48,600 was transferred. The next day, during the normal course of business, a Treasurer’s Office employee requested information as to how the transfer should be recorded. 

The County Administrator’s Office replied it had no knowledge of the transfer. It was at this time the crime was discovered.