CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Public Library mistakenly transferred nearly $400,000 to a fraudulent vendor in June 2024 after failing to detect a payment redirect scheme, according to a new audit released by the Ohio Auditor of State’s Office.

The financial incident was disclosed in a management letter as part of the library’s audit covering Jan. 1, 2024, through Dec. 31, 2024.

Auditors said the scam occurred after someone posed as a legitimate vendor and submitted a request to change the library’s bank payment information. The library then sent the money to the fictitious account.

“The library did not have a proper internal control process in place to detect fictitious vendors,” auditors wrote. "We did note that the library immediately implemented multiple vendor verification measures

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