There was a little less than a quarter of a million dollars in a bank account used by the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority when an international computer hacker tried to steal funds from it, according to Patrick M. Caulfield, the authority's executive director.
In response to a Right-to-Know request, the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority on Tuesday revealed how much money was in the account at Sovereign Bank, Pottsville.
On March 19, Mark T. Catranis, the authority's controller, said it's not a checking account. The authority deposits funds into it to pay loans owed to the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority.
Using numbers for the account, the hacker developed a scheme using checks, Catranis said. The scheme failed, however, and the would-be thief did not get any money from the account.
When asked how much money on average was in that account on March 19, Caulfield said The Republican-Herald had to file a Right-To-Know request form. The newspaper filed that request March 20.
Caulfield wrote a response letter dated Monday that was hand-delivered to The Republican-Herald's Pottsville office Tuesday.
Caulfield released two bank account statements. According to one, the balance of the account on Dec. 26, 2012, was $230,763.17. According to the other, the balance of the account on Jan. 26 was $230,765.25.
In the Right-to-Know request, The Republican-Herald asked for the balance of the account on March 1 and March 19. However, Caulfield only provided statements from Dec. 26 and Jan. 26.
"We trust this satisfies your request," Caulfield said in the letter dated Monday.
Caulfield could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The authority is working with Pottsville police and Sovereign Bank during the investigation, Catranis said.
On March 20, Bryan Hurst, public relations specialist at Sovereign/Santander Bank, Boston, Mass., said the bank cannot comment on individual customers or their accounts.
"Safeguarding customer information and funds is a top priority at Sovereign/Santander. In the event that a customer's account has been compromised, we take immediate action to secure the account and work with our customer to prevent any losses," Hurst said.