Cranbury Township, New Jersey, lost about $26 million to a fraudulent wire transfer, township officials said, a theft that was not disclosed to the public until more than five weeks after it occurred. Mayor Lisa Knierim, a Democrat, announced the loss on November 6, days after the local election. The transfer took place on September 28, and the money had been set aside for a property purchase connected to the township's affordable housing obligations.
Officials have so far frozen about $17.3 million in assets, but roughly $8.7 million remains unaccounted for beyond what the freeze has reached. Township officials are working with insurers on possible options for recovering the funds, though the notes available do not specify what coverage may apply. The size of the gap between the amount frozen and the amount still missing has left the scope of any recovery uncertain.
A task force was formed to pursue the case, bringing together local, county, state and federal agencies. The effort is led by the Cranbury Township Police Department and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. Officials said the investigation is ongoing and have withheld further details while it proceeds, which has limited what residents and the public know about how the transfer was carried out.
Residents have criticized the delay in going public, particularly because the disclosure came after the election rather than before it. The lapse between the September transfer and the November announcement has become the central point of public frustration. Officials have not publicly explained why the announcement waited more than five weeks, and that silence has added to the questions being asked in town.
Fox News Digital sought comment from the mayor's office on the timing and the investigation, but had not received a reply at the time of reporting. The absence of an official explanation leaves open how and when the township decided to disclose the loss, and whether the timing was tied to the election.
The disclosure arrived as the township was settling its local government after the vote. Democrat Thomas Szczur Jr. defeated Republican Carol Haring, winning 63.7 percent of the vote to Haring's 36.3 percent. Democrats retained all five seats on the Township Committee, so the party that holds local power is the same one whose mayor announced the loss and whose administration will oversee the response.
The committee has also moved to strengthen its administrative capacity in the wake of the theft. Plans call for two new positions, an assistant administrator and an assistant chief financial officer, and the committee is considering hiring a municipal accounting firm to provide consulting services. Those steps mark a shift toward closer financial oversight at a time when the township is still working out the full consequences of the transfer and the unanswered questions about how the funds were lost.