Once again, the Finance and Corporate Services department has allowed itself to be defrauded in another business email compromise fraud. This will be the main item of debate for this meeting.
Also on the agenda: semi-annual updates on fraud and waste reports, write-offs of Provincial Offences Act hard-to-collect fines, and repealing the Community Benefits Changes levied against new developments.
The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday inside Council Chambers. (Here are the links for the agenda, and the YouTube live stream.)
$274,000 Stolen from the City in Business Email Compromise Fraud
Hamilton’s Corporate Services and Finance department is promising to conduct basic diligence in the future whenever the City receives an email requesting changes to vendor banking and payment information.
This follows the City being defrauded of $274,000 after staff repeatedly changed banking information based upon emailed requests sent by a scammer who compromised a vendor’s email system.
The scam occurred between November 27, 2023, and January 29, 2024. It was only discovered when the legitimate vendor contacted the City to ask about overdue payments.
The funds were diverted to bank accounts in the United States. The City does not expect to recover the funds.
This is only the latest fraud the City has permitted to occur. In March 2024, the City paid $552,000 to a fraudster after changing bank account information, despite being warned by the legitimate vendor and told not to change any banking information. Making matters worse, the City went the wrong amount, which ended up in the fraudster’s bank accounts.
More details here:
Repealing Community Benefit Charges
Council will vote on a recommendation to eliminate Hamilton’s Community Benefit Charge for new housing development. The charge, calculated as four percent of land value, is primarily used by the City to fund staffing, studies, and to build public parking infrastructure.
The City collected only $79,113 in 2024. Due to the lack of housing starts, the city does not expect to collect any CBC fees in 2025.
More details here:
POA Write-Off
The City will write off $2,665,794.51 in uncollected provincial offences fines, $2,160,261 in uncollectible fines with a default date of December 31, 2017, $1,422.08 in underpayments from April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2025, and $504,111.43 in fines held by persons deceased in 2023 and 2024.
Fraud, Waste, and Whistleblower Semi-Annual Update
In an update report, the City’s internal auditor states there were six whistleblower disclosures in 2024, up from one in 2023.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: May 18, 2025
Last updated: May 18, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version