A long-awaited Chittenden County recycling facility will see a chunk of its funding returned after it was stolen in a cyber fraud scheme early this year, federal authorities said Tuesday.
The reimbursement will allow the Chittenden Solid Waste District to stay on track in funding the upgraded plant, said Sarah Reeves, the waste district’s executive director.
“We were in shock, and it was devastating,” she said of learning that the district had sent a large amount of money to a fraudulent account. “It was horrible, and there’s no manual for this.”
Over $3 million was stolen in January by scammers appearing as a construction company that the district had been working with for the project, according to court documents.
After realizing the money was in fact not being used by a legitimate construction company, the waste district alerted the U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont. With FBI assistance, federal authorities seized $2.27 million that will be returned to the district. A federal judge on Thursday ordered the funds released.
According to Reeves, the FBI responded to her alert about the missing money the same day.
“Because of CSWD’s actions in the wake of the phishing scam, we were able to seize and return over $2 million dollars to CSWD, a benefit to all residents of Chittenden County,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan A. Ophardt wrote in a Tuesday news release.
The returned money means Chittenden County’s new, under-construction recycling facility is on track for completion. The recycling plant is set to automate sorting and increase capacity to adapt to residential and commercial growth in the area.
The new facility is being funded largely by a $22 million bond passed by Chittenden County voters in 2022.
If the stolen money for the project had not been returned, Reeves said, the waste district would have had to secure a short-term bank loan to close the gap to keep the project on schedule.
The facility is scheduled to open in spring 2027 with a testing phase beginning in January, according to Reeves.
In the wake of the fraud, the waste district revisited its budget because of the need to conserve cash, Reeves said. The budget adjustment has led the district to defer projects to later years after the new facility gets up and running and put off smaller purchases like “replacing a truck here and there,” Reeves said.
The waste district is also reexamining its digital security, but Reeves stressed that to prevent such incidents more people should be comfortable with reporting scams as soon as they occur and taking away the shame that comes with it.
“This can happen to anybody at any level,” Reeves said.
