Woman sentenced after City of Portland hack leads to $1.4M loss in housing funds

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) – A Florida woman accused of hacking the City of Portland in 2022 and taking $1.4 million in funds meant for low-income housing was sentenced on Monday after reaching a plea deal, Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office announced.

Officials said 40-year-old Chantail Williams pled guilty to first-degree aggravated theft for her role in the fraud scheme. According to court documents, she previously faced other charges, including aggravated identity theft, computer crime, laundering a monetary instrument and conspiracy to commit a Class B felony; however, those charges were dismissed.

Authorities discovered the hack in May 2022 when the Portland Police Bureau investigated an unauthorized “intrusion” of the city’s computer network. Police learned that an email account associated with the city’s housing bureau was hacked and malware corrupted the device.

During the investigation, authorities said they learned that a month prior, funds were fraudulently transferred from the city to a bank account in Florida belonging to an LLC and ran by Williams. Officials said those funds were meant for a low-income housing project for the non-profit Central City Concern.

Detectives discovered Williams made wire transfers from that bank account to other accounts, with a majority of the funds wired to an account in Mexico, authorities said. Additionally, authorities said she bought furniture and a $25,000 car from a card associated with her account.

The district attorney’s office said they believe the hack was orchestrated by bad actors overseas and that authorities are continuing to investigate the perpetrators.

Williams was sentenced to five years of supervised probation and must pay restitution. She must also cooperate with the city’s ongoing investigation as part of her probation.

Williams previously served 30 days in jail when after she was extradited to Oregon.

In a statement to KOIN 6 News, Central City Concern said, “the City of Portland worked efficiently and swiftly with CCC to ensure there were no delays in the construction timeline of the affected project.”

A city spokesperson told KOIN 6 News the city faces regular cybersecurity threats but maintains an “elevated status” to maintain resident and city data.

“The City of Portland is dedicated to ensuring the protection of our residents’ data and privacy through robust cybersecurity measures. We routinely face cyber threats, common to both public and private sectors, but our advanced detection and prevention capabilities help safeguard our information and technologies. As cyber threats intensify, the city maintains an elevated status for threat intelligence, alert monitoring, and system patching. We are continually enhancing our security efforts to stay ahead of evolving threats,” the city spokesperson said.

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