Cyber security issues on agendas of City Council, LEDA

The Lawton Economic Development Authority will meet Thursday to discuss the results of an investigation into the fraudulent wire transfer last summer that siphoned off almost a quarter of a million dollars.

The LEDA meeting will occur two days after the Lawton City Council voted to spend almost $150,000 to renew two liability insurance policies intended to protect City Hall computers from cyber criminals.

LEDA Executive Director Richard Rogalski informed the City Council during its meeting July 8, 2025, that $224,840 was stolen from LEDA via a Fisher59 email hack.

The Lawton Police Department "did a very good job and tracked the evidence pretty far," Rogalski told The Lawton Constitution on Tuesday. The problem is, cash and coin money "gets converted" into alternate forms such as bitcoin, "and goes everywhere," he said.

Brett Walford, president of Fisher59 Properties, is slated to present a report about the theft during LEDA's regular meeting Thursday that's open to the public. Additionally, a status report on the investigation into the fraudulent wire transfer "and other related matters" is scheduled to be discussed during a closed-door LEDA executive session tomorrow.

The LPD, the FBI, and the U.S. Secret Service "have chased this rabbit as far as we can," Rogalski said. They will continue "trying to recover those dollars," but the question is: Where to go from here?

All of the stolen money will be repaid to the city via tax increment finance revenues that LEDA receives, primarily from Fisher59, Rogalski said. Fisher59, for example, pays approximately $160,000 in property taxes each year, he said.

The City of Lawton paid LEDA $1.1 million to help finance Fisher59's industrial development project in south Lawton, in the Airport Industrial Park. Fisher59 spent $16 million to construct a 100,000 square-foot beer distribution warehouse on a 15.7-acre parcel north of the Pepsi distribution center in the Airport Industrial Park.

Also Thursday, LEDA will consider approving an invoice from Fisher59 Properties for reimbursement of $299,478 they spent on infrastructure improvements associated with construction of their new warehouse and distribution center. Those include water and sewer lines, road and storm drainage improvements that will be dedicated to the City of Lawton.

Meanwhile, the City Council voted Tuesday night to renew City Hall's primary cyber security insurance policy with Cowbell, based in Pleasanton, California. It was secured through the city's insurance broker, Insurica, at a cost of $130,995.

The policy has a $2 million aggregate limit and coverage includes cyber crime loss, media liability, utility fraud attack, and bricking costs. "Bricking" occurs when a device such as a computer becomes inoperable because of malicious actions or software issues, effectively turning it into a brick.

Last year the City of Lawton acquired cyber insurance "to provide financial coverage for potential losses and support an efficient recovery process," IT Director Judy Franco wrote.

Similarly, the council voted to renew an "excess cyber crime" policy for $18,000 from Lloyd's of London, also via Insurica. That policy extends coverage to crimes such as hacking, social engineering, and funds transfer fraud, and provides an additional $750,000 in coverage after the primary policy "has been exhausted."

Both policies expire this month and both renewals are for one year, records show.

Although it happened nearly nine years ago, many people still remember when City Hall was hamstrung by a polymorphic banking Trojan that disabled more than 500 city computers.

The virus struck on Aug. 22, 2017, shutting down utility billing, payroll operations, court services, and email for weeks. Because of the malware, citizens were required to pay their utility bills in

person and internal electronic communications ground to a halt. The city's website was finally back up and running on Nov. 1, but online police report filing was still down at the time.

Mike W. Ray is a fifth-generation, award-winning journalist who has more than 55 years' experience covering municipal, county, state and federal government in Oklahoma and Texas. He can be reached at [email protected].