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Sentenced
Stealing $2 million from 9,870-student San Felipe-Del Rio CISD in an email phishing scheme netted Georgia resident Donald Ray Lockard, 67, a 52-month prison sentence on March 17.

The federal judge who sentenced Lockard also ordered him to repay $277,957.33 in restitution. About $1.8 million had been recovered by authorities from Lockard’s bank accounts, prosecutors said in a statement when Lockard pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge about a year ago.

The ISD was duped into believing, via an email sent to the district’s comptroller, that the bank account for the financial firm that had been receiving the bond payments had been changed.

The district had sent three wire transfers totaling $2,013,762.50 to what was in reality an account controlled by Lockard before learning of the scheme when the legitimate financial firm started asking why the district was not making bond payments.

Prosecutors hinted that other “co-conspirators” may have been involved in the scheme.