Pittsburg’s rec center scam left the East Bay city chasing stolen public money after fraudsters tricked employees into wiring nearly $1 million meant for a planned sports complex. The city sent $913,000 on Feb. 12 to what it believed was the account of Discovery Builders Inc., the contractor behind the Dream Courts project.
Officials did not learn the payment had gone to the wrong place until five days later, when the real builder asked where the money was. Court records show the fraud started with a subtle email spoof: the fake Discovery Builders address used an extra lowercase “L,” a small change that helped sell the deception. The scammers then allegedly broke into the email account of Sara Bellafronte, an assistant to the city manager, and used her identity to press a city finance employee to accept updated banking instructions.
In the fake messages, the impostor claimed the new bank information had already been confirmed over the phone and told the employee to make the change. That request was enough to move the city’s payment into a fast-moving web of accounts, drawing in federal investigators and prompting an FBI case. Authorities later issued 18 search warrants involving 116 accounts and said they traced the money to two suspects in the United States and one in Nigeria.
Investigators were able to freeze the account that initially received Pittsburg’s money, which allowed the city to recover about $696,000. City officials said they were also seeking insurance coverage for the roughly $218,000 still missing. Court records say one Illinois man who handled some of the funds appeared to be an unwitting participant, believing he was working for a legitimate company called Tyco Alloy Industries. He later moved the money and used about $217,000 to buy bitcoin, which he sent to a cryptocurrency wallet.
