Grand Forks Public Schools leadership saying little about alleged fraud

Oct. 5—GRAND FORKS — District leaders are saying little about the $2.2 million allegedly swindled from Grand Forks Public Schools last month.

The district's superintendent, business manager and School Board president all declined requests by the Herald to provide more information

about the alleged wire fraud reported to police on Sept. 13,

citing the ongoing criminal investigation of the matter.

That's included queries about the financial impact of the alleged fraud, when the School Board became aware of the fraud, whether anyone has been disciplined or fired as a result of the incident.

"I know people are interested, that they want to know the why behind all of it, but we do want to preserve the integrity of the investigation," Superintendent Terry Brenner said.

Brenner said all communications relating to the fraud investigation would be coming from law enforcement. The Grand Forks Police Department is handling the case with support from the United States Secret Service.

Brenner said there is a possibility of a joint media release by the district and authorities in the future, but it was otherwise premature for him to speculate about the case.

The school district did issue a staff-wide notice of the fraud Wednesday afternoon, shortly after the Herald first reached out to confirm whether the fraud had taken place.

Brenner said the notice was sent out to let staff know their banking information had not been compromised, but said he would not address why the district had waited nearly three weeks to do so.

Los Angeles-based certified fraud examiner Julie Platt says it's not surprising district officials are refusing to comment.

"There's very little motivation to publicly disclose you've been defrauded," she said. "I have not seen a lot of governments do it, and a lot of private businesses and public businesses, they don't want to do it. It makes them look bad."

School Board President Dave Berger also said the School Board would not issue a statement about the alleged fraud "until the investigation is complete and all the facts have been brought to light."

He did not respond to a query about when he or other School Board members became aware of the fraud.

Brenner and Business Manager Brandon Baumbach also declined to speak about the impact of the fraud on the district's finances.

Platt suggested one reason the district isn't commenting on the financial cost of the alleged fraud is administrators may be waiting to see if law enforcement can recover the lost cash or if the district has fraud insurance that may make up the loss.

Baumbach did not answer a text message asking whether anyone has been disciplined or fired as a result of the fraud.

"The school district has been the victim of a crime perpetrated by an external actor which is under investigation," he wrote in response.