Report: Wall ISD Scammed Out of $45,472 in Email Scheme

SAN ANGELO, TX — Wall ISD was scammed out of $45,472, according to an ongoing Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office investigation that began May 1.

According to the sheriff investigator’s initial report, Superintendent Russell Dacy took a few days off from work due to an illness in late April. While away, the district’s business manager, Charlotte Weishuhn, on April 20, received an email from the superintendent, who was still ailing at home, asking her to wire transfer from the district’s bank account the amount of $16,224 to a “Joanne Golanski.” Weishuhn complied.

Days after the first wire transfer was complete, on April 24, the superintendent emailed Weishuhn again from home asking her to wire transfer $12,624 to a person named “Helen Roam.” The business manager complied again, and the money was sent.

The superintendent emailed Weishuhn a third time, asking her to wire $16,624 to a “Eugene Kwame.”

The receiving bank’s fraud department intercepted the last wire transfer.

Then, a fourth transfer was successful to Aero Federal Credit Union in Glendale, Arizona for the same amount, $16,624.

In all, Wall ISD wire transferred $45,472 to three bank accounts and three different presumed persons.

On May 1, the superintendent returned to work. Weishuhn and the superintendent discussed the wire transfers. But, according to the report, the superintendent told Weishuhn he made no requests to wire transfer any money to anyone by email or any other method.

The emails were fake.

Weishuhn and the superintendent immediately contacted the Tom Green County Sherriff’s Office and reported fraudulent activity. Weishuhn told deputies she also made a report of the fraudulent activity to Wall ISD’s bank, Texas Bank.

Currently, the sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division is investigating the incident.