Utah treasury theft tied to Nigeria

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The theft of $2.5 million from the Utah state treasury involved a scam that was based out of Nigeria, the head of a forensic accounting company says.

Kessler International President Michael Kessler, whose New York company also serves as an investigative agency, said Thursday the scam appeared to have originated five years ago in Nigeria, The Salt Lake Tribune said.

"Their IT people should have known better," Kessler said, referring to the treasury's information technology workers. "It sounds like any kid could have done this."

Kessler was basing his comments on a search warrant released by Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court this week. The warrant details how unidentified individuals had submitted invoices on a Utah state Web site that were ultimately paid by the state to a Texas bank account.

After $2.5 million in state payments were sent to the account, several checks were written to unidentified people to disperse the funds, the Tribune said.

The newspaper said the search warrant targets people involved with receiving or transferring the missing funds.