Dear CMA Recovery Community,
In less than a month, the 2026 CMALA Convention will open our doors and our hearts once again, bringing our fellowship together in recovery, service, connection, and healing. We are super excited about this year’s event, and we hope you are too!
A sensitive and urgent matter has recently occurred. In the spirit of transparency, we feel it necessary to bring it to your attention. As part of the annual convention budget, CMALA spends a significant amount on food to cover meals for 800+ guests over the weekend. This year, our costs with the catering company totaled $19,508.07. The catering vendor is one we have contracted with for many years, and one in which we hold a trusted business partnership. The funds were paid via ACH advance wire to the bank account provided, and we received confirmation on June 6, 2026, that the transaction was successful. Just this past Monday (June 15), we received correspondence from our Sales Rep at the catering company letting us know that they have yet to receive our payment. Confused, we immediately got on the phone with the vendor to understand what happened. It was discovered that an unauthorized party had “phished” the email address of our vendor, masking as our trusted contact at the catering company. Through their messages, the hacker falsely informed us that the primary account for the company was under audit and requested that we send the funds to an alternate account at their company. Unbeknownst to us, they provided a fraudulent account for us to wire the funds. Because the email address used for our communications was identical to the email address used by our longstanding vendor, we had no reason to be suspicious and followed their instruction. We did not know anything was wrong until the legitimate vendor contacted us nine days later letting us know they were still awaiting payment. It was then we discovered that the $19,508.07 was stolen in an unfortunate cyberattack. We have taken the following suggested steps towards recouping the lost funds. A claim was filed with Bank of America (pending 45-day investigation). A report was made to the bank that fraudulently received the funds. While no claim can be filed since we are not account holders, they assured us that they would fully cooperate with the Bank of America fraud investigation. A report was filed with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. A report is being filed with the City of West Hollywood police department. Our catering vendor has contacted their insurance company to see if anything can be done. Unfortunately, since the transaction occurred on our side and the funds were never deposited to the catering vendor’s legitimate account, there is nothing that their insurance can do for CMALA – and, because we are a small nonprofit organization, we do not have fraud insurance to protect ourselves from this type of crime. We remain hopeful that something will come of the claim filed with our bank and/or the legal reports filed with the FBI & local police, but there is simply not enough time for those actions to conclude before this year’s convention. While this is certainly devastating for the organization and for what we had planned for CMALA in 2026, rest assured that we will still have a convention. This situation has, however, placed us in a tough predicament…and we need your help! This has always been an event that was built by the community, and we truly need your support now more than ever. We are working behind the scenes to determine a viable path forward, including scaling back catering costs and utilizing more volunteers to execute the meal service. We currently do not, however, have the funds to cover all food costs without turning to our community and asking for financial support. We know it is a lot to ask, as many of you have already donated so much already. We are forever grateful for your prior contributions and completely understand those that do not have the means and/or are simply unable to do more at this time. For those, however, that feel inspired to contribute and appreciate how much CMALA has meant to our local community over the years, we have created a GoFundMe to raise as much funds as we can within the next three weeks. All donations are tax deductible, and the money raised will go towards our food costs to recoup what was sadly lost due to this unfortunate incident. We understand that there may be comments that individuals may want to convey to our organization. We welcome your feedback, as it is the collective conscience that guides us on our path forward. You can email us directly at questions@cmala.com. This is difficult news, and certainly not what we had planned as we build our momentum towards this year’s convention. But this will not break us; it will only make us stronger. We have overcome so much worse in our active addiction, and we have faith that we will get through this moment as well. CMALA has been, and will always continue to be, a safe space for people to connect, grow, and recover from crystal meth addiction. We truly thank you for your ongoing support as we navigate the days ahead.
Humbly Yours,
2026 CMALA Executive Board
