Suit says bank breached fiduciary duty when it allowed fraudulent $67,000 wire transfer
NEWTOWN, Conn. Oct. 25, 2018) – Technology firm Precision Computer Services, Inc. recently filed a multi-count lawsuit against Newtown Savings Bank after the bank failed to identify a fraudulent wire transfer order, and bank employees sent $67,560 from Precision’s account to a bank in Hungary. According to the lawsuit, the bank missed numerous red flags which signal suspicious behavior and now refuses to reimburse Precision for the unauthorized withdrawal.
According to the complaint filed in Superior Court, last June the bank received an email from an individual pretending to be an employee of Precision. The email was sent from an email account with a similar but fraudulent domain name, a tactic known throughout the banking industry as “spoofing.” The email requested that funds be sent urgently to a bank in Hungary. Precision had never previously wired funds to Hungary nor did it have any payment history or business relationship with the recipient of the funds.
According to the lawsuit, Newtown Savings Bank improperly caused money to be transferred pursuant to a payment order which was not sent or authorized by Precision. The bank also failed to set forth commercially reasonable methods of providing security against unauthorized payment orders. In addition, the lawsuit contends that the bank did not follow guidance concerning fraudulent spoofing schemes that was distributed in 2016 by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the United States Department of Treasury.
The lawsuit also states that Newtown Savings Bank was negligent because it failed to safeguard Precision’s funds, and the bank had a duty to train its employees to detect and prevent foreseeable fraud.
“As residents raising a family in Newtown, we chose to use Newtown Savings Bank because we wanted to promote local commerce,” said Irene FitzSimons, president of Precision. “After doing business with the bank for almost 20 years, I am so disappointed because they did not protect our deposits and then turned their backs on us.”
More information is available at precisiongroup.com. A copy of the lawsuit is available here.
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Source: Precision Computer Services, Inc.