The Mayor’s open letter to Clark Fork residents

4.17.2025

Dear Clark Fork Residents,

I am authoring this letter to update citizens within the community regarding the incident of criminal fraud related to the City’s water infrastructure project which occurred in November 2024. While this matter remains under pending criminal investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, information related to the investigation may not be disseminated to the public in order to minimize the possibility of interference with investigatory functions and prevent threat actors from compromising evidence which may not yet be discovered. However, the City is pleased to provide its citizens with news that its banking institution, Umpqua Bank, was able to successfully retrieve a portion of the stolen funds.

Simultaneous with the criminal investigation led by the FBI, Umpqua Bank had launched its own fraud department investigation at the request of the City in hopes of recovering the misdirected funds. Although initial feedback from Umpqua indicated it did not believe the recovery of any funds was likely, they continued working behind the scenes on this matter. Recently, Umpqua informed the City that it had completed its investigatory work and successfully facilitated a partial recovery of funds, returning to the City approximately $192,937.22 of the total $483,519.12 that was
misdirected. The City has since arranged distribution of these funds to Noble Excavating, Inc.

The City remains hopeful that at the conclusion of the federal investigation, the threat actor may be identified and the funds returned, similar to the success which was yielded by the City of Gooding this past year after an extensive federal investigation in that jurisdiction. In the meantime, the City will continue to follow the directives and advice of its attorneys and investigators, dissuading the unnecessary disclosure of investigatory information in an attempt to maximize all possible opportunities for return of the stolen funds. We appreciate the understanding and assistance of our citizens through this process and will continue to work diligently behind the scenes to protect the financial interests of our citizens.

Sincerely,

Russell Schenck, Mayor