Law enforcement authorities have found much of the nearly $1 million stolen in an international phishing scheme against Caddo Public Schools but have not recovered the money, a detective said Tuesday.

Nearly $714,000 has been found and frozen in U.S. bank accounts, said Capt. Bobby Herring, a detective with the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office.

Authorities continue to look for an additional $275,000 that they say was stolen in a fraudulent email scheme involving the Caddo schools and the company that operates the Magnolia School of Excellence in Shreveport.

Caddo Schools employees reported the theft to law enforcement authorities on Dec. 12, Herring said. They disclosed the theft to the public only Tuesday, in a news release.



School district spokeswoman Mary Nash-Wood said in an interview that the delay in the notification occurred because information regarding the scope and nature of the scam was still being gathered.

Phishing involves sending emails disguised to look like communications from reputable sources to get recipients to divulge information such as passwords and credit card numbers.

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The school district news release said the theft occurred when an unknown individual fraudulently posed as an employee with Charter Schools USA, which operates the Magnolia school. The individual spoofed an official Charter Schools USA email account to change banking information on file with Caddo Schools, which then sent money to the wrong bank account.

The Magnolia School of Excellence is a taxpayer-funded, privately operated charter school. It receives direct payments from the Caddo school district based on enrollment.

Approximately $988,000 was sent by the district to the wrong bank account, according to the Caddo district.

T. Lamar Goree, the Caddo Schools superintendent, told reporters Tuesday afternoon that the theft occurred in the summer of 2018. He said the stolen money was one monthly payment to Charter Schools USA.

"There was a time in the summer where our charter school parent company's email system was hacked into," Goree said.

The email account from which the communication originated was based in a country in Africa. Sheriff's deputies declined to disclose which country.

After discovering the email originated from Africa, the school district and Charter Schools USA began working with the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office Cyber Crimes Division. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting the sheriff's office.

The theft did not create hardship for Charter Schools USA, said Lonnie Luce, superintendent of its eight Louisiana charter schools.

Luce said Caddo Schools had promised payment in the coming days. The district pays Magnolia once a month, he said.

"It wasn't really our issue. It was Caddo's, so, if they pay us the money, we are still fine," he said.

A similar phishing scam targeted the Independence Bowl in November, but the organization had safeguards that protected it, Herring said. The sheriff's office is continuing to investigate that failed phishing attempt. The Independence Bowl Foundation stages a collegiate football bowl game each December in Shreveport.

The Caddo Parish School Board has hired a California law firm to help recover the funds, Goree said.

The school district provides staff training about internet safety and works to identify phishing attempts in an effort to protect employees, said Nash-Wood, the school district spokeswoman.

“The team at the Caddo Sheriff’s Office Cyber Crimes Division and the FBI are the best of the best and were able to follow a difficult trail to unravel an international scheme to obtain funds meant for the students of Magnolia,” Goree said in a prepared statement released earlier. “We are grateful for the efforts of law enforcement to quickly address concerns regarding these fraudulently obtained funds and working so diligently to secure these funds.”