The City of Saskatoon says it is one step closer to recovering the remaining funds taken in an alleged fraud scheme.
City manager Jeff Jorgenson said an Ontario court judge ordered on Friday the return of $355,000 that the city said was fraudulently obtained in August.
“This is exactly the outcome we have wanted for the past three months,” Jorgenson said in a statement.
“We are grateful to the court and for the efforts made by many people and organizations to recover this stolen money.”
The city said $1.04 million was deposited in a fraudster’s bank account after someone electronically impersonated the CFO of Allan Construction and asked for a change in banking information.
Allan Construction is the contractor for the ongoing rehabilitation of Sid Buckwold Bridge.
The city said roughly $700,000 had been recovered previously through previous court proceedings.
The remaining funds were the subject of court hearings in Toronto, where the city said three parties were claiming to be the victims of fraud.
Jorgenson said the judge found the remaining defendants did not provide enough evidence to require a trial and ordered the money to be returned.
The judge also awarded the city $25,000 in court costs, Jorgenson said.
The remaining funds will not be released to the city until the 30 day appeal period has expired.
Jorgenson said the city has installed tighter accounting measures.
“The finance team has worked closely with our internal auditors to implement appropriate controls that are now in place to help ensure that nothing like this happens again,” he said.
Jorgenson said city council will receive an updated report into the root cause of the incident before the end of the year.
Saskatoon police have yet to lay charges as officers continue to investigate.