DUBOIS — On an otherwise routine Tuesday in early May, DuBois’ solicitor showed up at City Hall with $93,920 in cash tucked inside a cardboard box and packaged in a gift bag.

The solicitor, Toni Cherry, pulled DuBois’ Interim City Manager Chris Nasuti and Police Chief Blaine Clark out of a meeting. According to Nasuti, she handed the gift bag to the two men and told them that the cash — in bills of $20s, $50s, and $100s — belonged to the city. She advised them to deposit the money and did not explain why or how it came into her possession.

“Of course, it was a surprise,” Nasuti told Spotlight PA. He said he and Clark immediately put the cash into a new bank account isolated from other city funds, and alerted the state attorney general’s office. The mysterious origin and handling of the bag full of cash is now at the center of yet another storm in a community already reeling from a distressing corruption scandal.

Earlier this year, one of DuBois’ most politically connected government officials, former City Manager Herm Suplizio, was arrested. Suplizio is accused by the state attorney general’s office of stealing more than $600,000 in taxpayer money over nearly a decade, charges that raise troubling questions about how such a large-scale theft could play out in a city of about 7,400 without anyone noticing.