Trumbull County Auditor Martha Yoder is exploring legal options after a court ordered her to pay Bazetta Township more than $80,000 in tax receipts.

According to court documents, Yoder is ordered to pay Bazetta Township $80,857.18 "in tax receipts collected from Bazetta Township."

However, Yoder has since responded via a statement saying she believes the court erred with this decision and will be discussing legal options with her attorney in the "very near future."

The lawsuit against Yoder was filed November 20, 2024 after the Bazetta Township Board of Trustees voted unanimously to sue Yoder during a meeting on November 16, 2024.

Bazetta Township Trustee Michael Hovis told 21 News that the Board and its attorney had been getting nowhere in trying to get Yoder to pay the money back to the township, so their only recourse was to file suit against her.

The funds went missing in early September in 2024 after an employee at the Trumbull County Auditor's Office fell victim to a scam.

A scammer impersonated Bazetta Township's Fiscal Officer and asked in an email that over $80,000 in taxpayer money be transferred to a new bank account.

However, the township did not have a new bank. 

According to court documentation, the money was deposited into a bank account at Green Dot Bank rather than to Bazetta Township.

Yoder previously told 21 News this happened because Bazetta's Fiscal Officer did not have multifactor authentication, or two-factor authentication, in use. 

According to court documents, not having a two-factor authentication system in place allowed the scammer to hack into the email account of the Bazetta Township Fiscal Officer and request that the bank for Bazetta Township be changed to the Green Dot Bank. 

Trustee Hovis argued that the employee with the Auditor's Office should have noticed oddities in the email that could have been indicators of fraudulent communications. 

Court documents state that the email was sent to individuals with misspelled email addresses, a telephone number listed in the email was not correct and it contained some "odd phrasing".

According to court documents, Yoder received an Auditor of the State Bulletin via email on April 12, 2024 that warned of such schemes - but she did not distribute the bulletin to her employees, advise them of the information it contained or offer training on the subject until October of 2024.

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