Texas woman indicted for allegedly attempting to defraud City of Lexington out of nearly $4M
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — A Houston woman was indicted Monday for allegedly attempting to defraud the Lexington-Fayette Urban County government out of millions of dollars.
According to a press release, Shimea McDonald conspired with others to defraud businesses or municipal entities with an email compromise scam. She, along with others, impersonated vendors in emails and requested wire payments to a new bank account.
The indictment alleges that in August 2022, McDonald helped impersonated a nonprofit that had business with the City of Lexington over email and convinced an employee to wire funds owed to the nonprofit to a bank account at Truist Bank, totaling nearly $4 million.
Ultimately, Truist Bank and the City of Lexington were able to recover all the money.
The investigation was conducted by Lexington police and the FBI.
McDonald will appear in court on Feb. 7 at 10 a.m. She’s charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, providing fraudulent statements to a federally insured financial institution and identity theft.
