At the first Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting of 2026, Sheriff Jim LaFarr informed the supervisors and taxpayers that he is "cautiously optimistic" about the direction of the investigation, adding that the second payment of $1.2 million has been "recovered and restored" in the county's budget.
"Our Treasurer's Office received a call from a person alleging that they were a representative of Peckham [Industries]. This person was calling to request the ability to establish an ACH, which is an Automated Clearing House payment vendor account with the county of Warren," Sheriff LaFarr explained. "There's a process and a procedure in place for vendors to be set up to complete these automated payments. The request was submitted and the account was established. However, the account was established using fraudulent information."
Warren County has trended toward ACH payments in recent months to avoid the abundance of check fraud that occurs, according to Warren County Treasurer Christine Norton.
Peckham Industries supplies materials and works on road paving projects; in this case, the payments were supposed to go to Peckham for several Warren County DPW road projects in Thurman, Stony Creek, and Lake George. Thus far in the investigation, Sheriff LaFarr concluded, "We do not have any reason to believe that Peckham had anything to do with this act of fraud."
"We've been working very closely with the New York State Computer Crimes Unit, the U.S. Secret Service, and very quickly, it was evident to us that this is not a sophisticated computer crime, not an elaborate form of phishing. This was a very basic act of fraud that was easily preventable," Sheriff LaFarr said.
On Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, Sheriff LaFarr received a call from Warren County Board of Supervisors Chairman Kevin Geraghty, who notified him about the fraud occurrence.
“Time with any one of these investigations is absolutely critical — minutes are essential with any type of an electronic banking transfer. Transactions can occur midday, late afternoon, and we want to get out in front of these things as quickly as we can," Sheriff LaFarr explained.
Neither Norton nor any staff member in the Treasurer's Office reached out to the Sheriff's Office when the incident occurred, according to Sheriff LaFarr.
"I didn't receive a call from anybody in the Treasurer's Office — not to ask a question, not to seek guidance. This matter was not reported to our Sheriff's Office through the Treasurer's Office, and that put us at a significant disadvantage," Sheriff LaFarr said. "This is an extremely sensitive investigation. We are having conversations and conducting interviews with employees that we work with in this county."
Warren County Treasurer Christine Norton, though, disputes some of Sheriff LaFarr's claims as "not accurate."
"The Treasurer's Office found out about this fraud scheme on Dec. 23 and we immediately looked into it. We called Arrow Bank because we had to follow very specific protocol, and that very specific protocol was to reach out to the FBI, complete an IC3 [Internet crime complaint], and to contact the New York State Police, so we were not advised to call the sheriff," Treasurer Norton explained.
According to Sheriff LaFarr, Chairman Geraghty and Warren County Administrator John Taflan granted law enforcement "full access to anything we need — agency computers, agency records, and all employee personnel."
Norton added that she had been cooperating entirely with the Sheriff's Office and the investigation until a Dec. 30 meeting between herself, Geraghty, and Taflan devolved into a discussion about who was to blame, with Norton claiming that Taflan was "bullying" her and making her out to be a scapegoat for the phishing incident.
"Due to certain events that happened on December 30, it became very evident that this was being targeted at the Treasurer's Department. As a result of that, I obtained an attorney," Norton said. Sheriff LaFarr said he is waiting on Norton's attorney to schedule an interview since one cannot be conducted without her attorney present.
Additionally, Norton alleges that Geraghty had received advanced notice of fraud potential from Peckham back in July 2025.
Chairman Geraghty told The Post-Star that Norton's allegations of his awareness of a prior notification are "false," while some county officials allege that Norton was contacted by Arrow Bank leadership, who cautiously asked her office whether or not the ACH transaction should be completed.
Sheriff LaFarr explained that "safeguards were not in place to make sure that our county was protected from potential fraud and liabilities" and that the Warren County e-banking and wire transfer policy was "not approved and adopted" until Dec. 19, 2025, making them vulnerable.
"Our investigation has been ongoing for two weeks. We're actively working to gather information, secure evidence, and locate the remaining funds that were taken from our residents," Sheriff LaFarr said. "I can assure that our team will exhaust every lead, will chase down any tip that's provided to us. We will leave no stone unturned. I am going to do everything within my power, lawfully acceptable, to recover every penny that was taken from our residents."
"When our investigation concludes, every document that we receive, everything we've been provided, every statement that we've taken, will be public record," Sheriff LaFarr continued. "As a county resident, taxpayer myself, there are over 65,000 residents who have been victimized by this."
Besides the ongoing criminal investigation, the Warren County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday that will allow an independent third-party law firm, Bond Schoeneck and King, to look into the incident further and provide legal advice and recommendations to the county. Treasurer Norton said that she welcomed a third-party and New York State Comptroller investigation.
The Post-Star will continue to monitor the investigation as it progresses.
©2026 The Post Star, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
