The immediate financial question for Milwaukee Public Schools is whether it can recover the $195,000 still missing after an impersonation scam caused an estimated $450,000 loss. The district says it learned of the fraud Monday; federal, state and local investigators are now examining what happened.
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius told the district's finance team in a message Tuesday that someone had impersonated MPS’s bank, according to WISN. U.S. Bank has recovered $255,000, Cassellius said, while the district and bank seek the remaining $195,000. Officials have not said when or how the fraud was carried out.
The mechanics and timing of the fraud remain undisclosed, Fox6 Milwaukee reported. Without those details, it is not yet clear how the impersonation worked or what procedures may have been bypassed.
Multiple Agencies Now Investigating
The response involves law enforcement as well as district officials. Federal, state and local authorities are investigating, according to WISN, including the FBI, the Wisconsin Statewide Intelligence Center and the Milwaukee Police Department. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that MPS also notified its Office of Accountability and Efficiency. The district says it is conducting an internal investigation and introducing short- and long-term financial controls.
Cassellius told the Journal Sentinel, “We are taking swift and immediate action to strengthen our internal procedures to prevent this from happening.” Officials have not publicly described the specific changes.
New Acting CFO Steps In Mid-Investigation
Jennifer Buros is serving as acting chief financial officer during the investigation, WISN reported. She joined MPS as deputy CFO over the summer, led this year's budget process, and previously worked at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and for more than 24 years as a school district business manager.
Charles Burbridge will advise Buros through the Council of the Great City Schools, according to WISN. He has more than 40 years of finance experience and previously was CFO for the Atlanta and DeKalb County school districts in Georgia. The Journal Sentinel reported that Aycha Sawa has been MPS chief financial officer since September 2024; officials did not immediately answer questions about her current employment status.
A District Already Under Financial Strain
The loss comes as MPS faces existing budget pressure. The Journal Sentinel reported that the district's main operations fund ran a $58 million deficit over the previous two school years, adding to the importance of understanding how the fraud occurred and what controls are being changed.
A previous fraud attempt involving Milwaukee city funds ended with the payment recovered. WISN reported that city staff sent $460,866 to a fraudulent account after someone altered a construction vendor's direct-deposit information; Capital One held the payment before it reached the fraudster. The city later said it had strengthened internal controls, verification procedures and staff training.
Other municipalities have also faced large diverted payments. Engineering News-Record reported that a fraudster impersonating contractor B.L. Harbert International communicated with Mobile, Alabama, employees for months before diverting a $14.7 million construction payment, aided in part by a genuine contractor invoice shared by a city employee. In Arab, Alabama, officials recovered $431,819 of a $432,739 payment diverted by someone impersonating another contractor, working with their bank, attorney and law enforcement.
National Context for Business Email Fraud
The FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) report recorded 21,489 business email compromise complaints and $2.9 billion in reported losses nationwide. Those figures provide broad context, but they do not show how common this fraud is among school districts or explain the MPS incident, according to the FBI IC3 report.
