In November, a scammer impersonated a vendor and stole nearly $500,000 from the Redmond Area Park and Recreation District.

The scammer took approximately $495,000 intended for the currently under construction recreation facility in southwest Redmond. The fraudster compromised the vendor’s email system and diverted a legit payment from the park district to the vendor into their account.

The new $49 million recreation center is still set to open in early 2026. The pools have been dug out and construction is well underway.

The fraud will not impact the center’s construction timeline or its financing, said district officials.

The park district worked with banks once it realized it had been scammed and was able to stop some of payments from going through. More than $100,000 has been recovered. Officials say they are not able to release any information about the criminal because the investigation is still ongoing. Redmond Police and the FBI said an investigation is underway.

Katie Hammer, executive director of the park district, said the FBI had no new updates as of Monday.

“We’re still working through SDAO (Special Districts Association of Oregon) and the insurance agent to recover the rest of the funds,” said Hammer during the park district’s Jan. 21 meeting.

The park district will be making changes in light of the fraud, and its electronic and financial systems remain secure.

“We are changing our financial procedures and we’re going to double check any requests from vendors that we receive to change payment method, payment location. We will be following up verbally with that vendor to verify it’s a legitimate request and not just a written request,” said Hammer.

The breach was not due to any problems with the park district’s systems, said Hammer. She said no customer or community member data was compromised.

“We are taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again, we do take it very seriously and the project is still moving forward, it’s on schedule, and this shouldn’t impact the construction,” said Hammer.

The Redmond police department had no comment.

Commitment to a strong team

Board members said they were hurt by the incident, but were working to

“Even though this incident has us all with heavy hearts, we need to just move forward and do our best for the district,” said board member and vice chair Kevin Scoggin.

The park district board of directors also voted to put a warning letter into Hammer’s personnel file at its meeting Jan. 21 due to the incident.

“Just seeing what has happened at different school boards and park and rec boards around this area, you know, we got a strong team here. We are gonna come under fire. We should, we’re dealing with a lot of people’s money. We have big decisions to make,” said board member and chair Matthew Gilman. “I really appreciate everybody taking this seriously, we have a very professional group here …We’ve got a lot more coming our way.”

The recreation center construction was paid for by a 2022 bond, but a levy to fund operations failed twice. The park district is still exploring funding options, which may include the possibility of closing the Cascade Swim Center, which will at least have reduced hours.