Bazetta Township trustees demand Trumbull County Auditor be held accountable for lost funds

Bazetta Township trustees are demanding that Trumbull County Auditor Martha Yoder is held accountable for $100,000 in public funds stolen from the township due to a scam.

In a press release sent to 21 News on Monday, Yoder said the incident happened because Bazetta Township's computer system had been compromised due to a multi-factor authentication feature being turned off.

However, township trustees see it differently, putting out a press release of their own blaming the Auditor's Office for failing to identify potential red flags in the email from the compromised email address before transferring the money.

According to the release, some of those red flags included a misspelling in an email address, an incorrect telephone number given and what trustees described as "odd phrasing."

"Bazetta Township rejects the Auditor’s attempts to shift blame to the Township Fiscal Officer. The Auditor and her staff are bonded or have errors and omissions insurance, which is intended to protect the taxpayers from such losses," the release reads.

Yoder previously told 21 News Bazetta Township's fiscal officer's email had been compromised since August 9 and hackers had full access to it until at least early September.

Yoder responded to comments from Trustee Chair Mike Hovis noting the red flags listed above saying while it is her office's responsibility to verify the legitimacy of a message and that more could have been done to do so, the Auditor's Office acted in good faith because it came from a legitimate email address and that the security of said email address is the fiscal officer's responsibility.

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