News Release

WARSAW — Lakeland Financial Corp. the parent company of Lake City Bank, has announced it is the victim of an international wire fraud. That fraud has cost the company more than $18 million.

The loss was reported in its quarterly earnings report. Bank officials said the incident did not result in any client information being compromised.

The fraud was discovered on June 30 and involved a “foreign threat actor” targeting a specific general ledger, through a single employee email account outside of the company’s network.

A forged wire transfer form was used to remove the funds from the bank.

The earnings report stated a third-party forensic investigation determined no client accounts were threatened, nor was there attempts to access client information or funds. The investigation found the company’s network was never breached and the foreign threat actor made no attempt to access the network.

The same day the fraud was discovered, the bank notified its insurance carriers and a forensic technology investigation company hired to conduct an investigation. The U.S. Secret Service, FBI and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network were also notified.

In the earnings report, Lakeland Financial reported a net income of $14.6 million in the second quarter, a 43% decrease from the same period a year ago.

Despite the drop there were bright spots for the bank.

A loan growth of $438 million was reported, representing a 10% annual growth throughout the bank. This is said to have been driven by a strong growth in Indianapolis where Lake City continues to grow its market share. A sixth office in the market was opened in the second quarter.