A lawsuit says that Gilbert Plains’s former chief administrative officer changed bank statements
A lawsuit filed last month says that a former chief administrative officer stole more than $500,000 from the bank account of a municipality in western Manitoba. He then tried to cover it up by making up a story about a cyberattack and changing documents, the lawsuit says.
The Municipality of Gilbert Plains filed the lawsuit on July 25 at Winnipeg’s Court of King’s Bench. It accuses then-CAO Amber Fisher of breaking her contract through “criminal, fraudulent, and unlawful conduct.”
It says that she moved 33 times, for a total of about $515,000, from the city’s bank account to her own between September 2020 and July 2021.
The city also says that Fisher lied on her bank statements to hide the transfers, gave council members fake reports that cleared her of any fraud, and made up a story that she had been hacked.
Courts have not found proof of any of the claims. A defense statement has not been filed yet.
Gilbert Reeve Plains Jim Manchur says that the Manitoba RCMP have been looking into Fisher since November of last year.
He said, “We can’t wait to hear what the RCMP has found out and if criminal charges will be brought.””It’s still kind of early.”
Before the article came out, neither Fisher nor the Mounties responded to requests for comments.
The lawsuit says that Fisher started working for the city in 2018 as a senior administrative officer. In April 2020, he was made the chief administrative officer.
According to the statement of claim, she was fired from her job as CAO in the summer of 2021 after the municipality’s credit union told them that a lot of money had been moved to a bank account under Fisher’s name.
The claim says that she told the city that she had been the target of a cyberattack and that a fraud investigation had been launched. She went back to work a week after she was suspended.
The suit says that the municipality’s auditors asked Fisher for bank statements several times in late 2021. The city said that it would ask its credit union directly for the statements in January 2022.
Fisher finally gave the municipality’s auditors his bank statements in March 2022, but the lawsuit claims that they had been changed from the originals.
Suit filed after worker reports “suspicious” payment
The city also says that Fisher gave them a draft of a fraud investigation report around the same time. The report said that Fisher had done nothing wrong. The suit says that it was presented as if it had been written by someone else.
In May 2022, the city met with auditors, who were worried about the bank statements, and with the person who was said to have written the fraud examination report. At the same time, an employee told the city about “suspicious payroll payments to Fisher,” according to the lawsuit.
Fisher was suspended again by the city at the end of May.
In June 2022, Gilbert Plains hired the accounting firm MNP to look into the situation.
A month after that, Fisher was put on paid administrative leave.
In November of the next year, MNP finished a forensic accounting and financial investigation report. It said that Fisher had moved around $532,000 of the city’s money to her bank account.
According to the lawsuit, MNP’s report also said she sent herself payments for about 280 hours of overtime between April and May 2020. This made her gross earnings about $15,000.
Fisher’s job with the city government was officially over when MNP turned in its report in November.
The lawsuit says Fisher lied when asked about the stolen money, didn’t help investigators, and spent or gave away all or some of the stolen money.
The statement of claim says she has paid back about $17,000 to the municipality, but the municipality says she still owes almost $515,000. The city is suing to get the rest of the money back, as well as for general, special, and punitive damages.
“I hope the RCMP was able to find out where the money went or what it was used for,” Manchur said.
Financial reporting has gotten “vastly better,” says reeve
Manchur said that the loss to the city would have been less painful if the money had been found in a reasonable amount of time.
But, he said, even though the alleged fraud has hurt the town, it hasn’t had to change any planned projects.
On July 25, Gilbert Plains also sued several insurance brokerages in a second case. This was done “in case they don’t cover our loss,” said Manchur.
That statement of claim says the municipality was insured for crimes and theft, but has not been compensated for the money allegedly taken by Fisher or the costs of retaining MNP to investigate.
Manchur says a new chief administrative officer and assistant CAO have been hired. New control measures have also been introduced in the municipality’s bookkeeping, and any funds disbursed by the municipality now have to be reviewed by multiple people.
“Our financial reporting has vastly improved, and I’m quite certain with what we’ve put in place … this should never happen again.”