Natwest faces legal battle after Italian engineering giant Maire Tecnimont falls victim to £4m banking scam
Natwest is facing a legal battle with Italian engineering giant Maire Tecnimont after the firm fell victim to a £4million scam.
The Saudi Arabian branch of Tecnimont accidentally sent £4million to a bank account based in Natwest’s Brixton branch after being contacted by a scammer who had hacked into the email account of the Italian firm’s group finance vice president.
By the time Tecnimont realised its error, the fraudster had dispersed most of the £4million across a web of untraceable bank accounts in Croatia, Hong Kong, Hungary and elsewhere.
The Saudi Arabian branch of Tecnimont sent £4m to an account based in Natwest’s Brixton branch after being contacted by a scammer who hacked the finance vice president’s emails
Tecnimont is suing Natwest, claiming it had inadequate controls in place to prevent the scam occurring.
Tecnimont claims the sudden appearance of £4million from Saudi Arabia in a bank account which had previously only handled thousands of pounds should have alerted Natwest’s suspicions.
And the subsequent transfer of that money to a web of overseas accounts should have raised more red flags, Tecnimont alleges.
The scam occurred at the end of 2018, when Tecnimont’s Saudi unit was trying to transfer £4million to another of the company’s subsidiaries.
But the scammer hacked into the executive’s email and sent a message instructing that the £4million should be paid into the Natwest account instead.
A spokesman for Natwest said it is ‘defending the claim brought by Tecnimont Arabia Limited’.