Athens, Ohio, Claws Back Half of $700,000+ Phished Away in Cyber Fraud
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City has been able to recover $405,000 lost in a spoofing and phishing cyber attack that targeted it in 2024 via a frozen bank account connected to hackers caught by the FBI in Delaware and an insurance payment.
NewsTechBuildingsCompaniesEthics & CorruptionGovernmentProject deliveryInformation technology Cybercrime Athens, Ohio, Claws Back Half of $700,000+ Phished Away in Cyber Fraud By Jeff Yoders The letters U and C in construction were transposed in an email address to impersonate an email payment request from Pepper Construction to Athens, Ohio, officials for a municipal project. The city now is suing unknown cyber criminals to recover some of nearly $722,000 sent to a requested bank account. Lawsuit image courtesy of McDonald Hopkins LLC April 6, 2026 The city of Athens, Ohio, has recovered more than half of some $722,000 stolen in a 2024 cyber fraud scheme that impersonated an e-mail invoice from contractor Pepper Construction.U.S. Attorney David Waterman in Iowa's southern district has also brought criminal charges against Chijioke Timothy Odimegwu and Harafat Mogaji, described as "members of the U.S. Air Force" stationed at the service's base in Dover, Del., accusing them of cyber theft against more than one dozen victims, also noting that Athens could be added to the total if the fraud was found to be caused by them. In November 2024, the city made a scheduled payment of $721,976 to Pepper for a new fire station. The hackers superimposed the U and C in the word construction in a Pepper e-mail address and sent a link that rerouted the payment to themselves. Because Athens filed a lawsuit just days after the erroneous payment was made, the funds were able to be frozen in t...
