The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission was notified by a vendor in December 2023 that a $421,206 payment made by the agency through an electronic funds transfer in November 2023 was not deposited into the vendor’s bank account, an Arkansas Legislative Audit official told state lawmakers on Thursday.
Upon further review, it was confirmed that the commission staff had received and acted upon a fraudulent email requesting bank data change, resulting in a payment being made to a bank account not belonging to the vendor, said Deputy Legislative Auditor Tom Bullington.
A police report was filed with the Little Rock Police Department and the FBI, and the investigation is ongoing, he said during a meeting of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee’s Standing Committee on State Agencies.
