Milwaukee Public Schools hit by $450K bank fraud, acting CFO appointed
Milwaukee Public Schools fell victim to a $450,000 bank impersonation fraud scheme, prompting the appointment of an acting CFO. The bank has already recovered $255,000 of the stolen funds.
MPS appoints acting CFO after $450K fraud scheme targets district funds
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has appointed an acting chief financial officer after the district was defrauded of $450,000 through a bank impersonation scheme, officials announced on 3 November, according to jsonline.com.
Jennifer Buros, hired as deputy CFO in July, has been placed in the acting CFO role while an investigation is underway. The employment status of incumbent CFO Aycha Sawa, who has held the position since September 2024, was not immediately clarified by district officials.
MPS officials said the fraud targeted funds held at US Bank and was carried out by an "external party." The district became aware of the scheme on 2 November. US Bank has since recovered approximately $255,000 and continues efforts to retrieve the remaining $195,000.
The district has notified multiple authorities, including the FBI, the Wisconsin Statewide Intelligence Center, the Milwaukee Police Department, and its own Office of Accountability and Efficiency, which has launched an internal investigation.
Sawa was brought on following the abrupt retirement of her predecessor, Martha Kreitzman, in June 2024, after accounting irregularities surfaced. When Superintendent Brenda Cassellius joined MPS in March 2025, she arranged for former Miami-Dade County Public Schools CFO Judith Marte to work alongside Sawa on a six-month mentoring contract, aimed at stabilising the finance office and maintaining balanced budgets. Over the past two school years, MPS recorded a $58 million deficit in its main operations fund.
Buros brings considerable credentials to the acting role. Before joining MPS, she served as director of the bureau of school financial services at Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction, where she worked directly with Sawa to overhaul the district's accounting systems. She is a certified public accountant and holds a lifetime licence as a school business administrator. Prior to her state role, she spent 24 years as a business manager for school districts.
Her deputy position at MPS consolidated two previously unfilled posts — comptroller and budget director. The district had struggled to fill the comptroller role after dismissing a previous holder in 2024 and losing a replacement hire in 2025. Former budget director Nick Sinram left MPS in March to lead Milwaukee County's budget office.
To support Buros during the transition, MPS is bringing in Charles Burbridge from the Council of Great City Schools. Burbridge previously served as CFO of Atlanta Public Schools.
Superintendent Cassellius said the district is "adding relevant additional controls" in response to the incident. "This is a sobering reminder of the sophisticated financial scams that occur every day across the country," Cassellius said. "We are taking swift and immediate action to strengthen our internal procedures to prevent this from happening."
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)