PITTSBURG — The city was hit by a sophisticated phishing scam whose members first impersonated a Seeno development company staffer, then hacked a municipal employee’s email address to steal $913,849.81, according to court records.
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The February cyberattack was publicly acknowledged by the city for the first time on Wednesday, nearly six months after it happened, following several requests for comment from this news organization. City officials say they were able to recover $696,241 of the stolen funds by freezing accounts where the money ended up, and plan to recover more funds through an insurance claim, but estimate they’ll lose about $100,000.
“We believe through insurance policies that the city has, that no more than $100,000 will be lost,” City Manager Darin Gale said. “Of course, the loss of any government dollars pains me as a city manager, but we took immediate action to ensure this does not happen again, but at the same time, we want to ensure that the loss that occurred is as limited as possible.”
The fraud investigation that followed led Pittsburg police and the FBI down a rabbit hole of sophisticated scamming networks; along the way police may have uncovered additional victims. Authorities say the group — possibly based in Nigeria — was using public records requests through the Freedom of Information Act to glean information about public contracts throughout the United States, then using it to impersonate vendors and trick public officials into wiring money to them.
That’s what happened last February in Pittsburg. A person ostensibly from Discovery Builders contacted Pittsburg’s Assistant to the City Manager, Sara Bellafronte, about a scheduled payment to build a 45,000-square-foot multi-court sports complex, dubbed Discovery Dream Courts. The scammer changed a single letter on the Discovery Builders’ staff email address, then hacked Bellafronte’s email account to bypass a second security check and complete a wire transaction to the scammer’s account, according to court records.
Police figured out the money was going to a 30-year-old Illinois man. When authorities contacted him he said he was a barber and believed the wire transfers were part of a legitimate business opportunity into which one of his customers had recruited him. Attorneys for Pittsburg said in court filings that the Illinois man is “cooperating” with police and sincerely believed the “business” was legitimate.
The FBI helped track down the money, according to a news release issued by the city.
“Given the nature of this cybercrime, we contacted related agencies and the FBI to tap all available resources,” Pittsburg Police Chief Phil Galer said in a statement.
The city ultimately served 18 warrants involving 116 accounts across technology companies, financial institutions and telecommunications providers, which narrowed down a primary suspect based in Nigeria with at least two “criminally affiliated” U.S-based suspects, officials said. One of the warrants may have revealed some of the scammers’ faces; police dug through a suspect’s social media accounts and found a picture of three men gathered around a computer in Nigeria, according to court records.
They also filed asset forfeiture petitions to seize the funds, one of which included court documents that detailed the police investigation.
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All of this was done over the past six months, while the scam was kept secret from the public. When initially asked for comment about the scam last month, Gale responded by asking how reporters found out about it. Galer ignored a reporter’s request for comment last month, as well. After more requests for comment, the city released a statement around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, detailing the incident and efforts to reclaim the funds.
Such scams appear to be becoming more common; since late June, the cities of Mountain View and Fremont have both issued news releases about similar attempts to swindle city funds intended for developers. The phishers were unsuccessful in both cases, city officials said.
Following the incident, Pittsburg heightened its cybersecurity and changed the way it processes payments. This includes mandatory cybersecurity training for staff, improvements to digital and human procedures including ACH payment verification processes, and controls within financial workflows, as well as modifications to IT staffing, said Gale.
“And there are fewer people that have authority (for ACH payment), and they all have to come through me and on a weekly basis, I get an email for all payments going out by ACH, and I approve those,” said Gale. “If there have been any changes, I have them verified myself before I make any approval for that type of payment.”
Mayor Dionne Adams said the crime was “upsetting” and “a hard lesson” on how the city can improve its security.
“I share the community’s disappointment that criminals were able to exploit our systems,” said Adams. “While this was a difficult moment, the City acted immediately to recover as much of the stolen funds as possible and tightened cybersecurity measures and procedures. I thank Pittsburg PD for their swift action and the law enforcement agency partners that helped us throughout this process.”
Authorities have not announced any arrests or criminal charges against the alleged scammers.
While the FBI is working to reclaim the scammed funds in full, they’re also investigating local politicians for wire fraud that also apparently relate to Seeno developers. In June, in an unrelated wire fraud probe, the FBI raided the homes and offices of the incoming and outgoing Contra Costa tax assessors, then subpoenaed information related to the Seeno family and Discovery Builders. That investigation remains shrouded in secrecy and no criminal charges have been filed.
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