Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that even large organizations fall for those fly-by-night Internet scams and need quick loans to dig their way out. But, come on, seriously? You were taken in by a Nigerian con artist, Citibank?

That’s right. A con artist by the name of Paul Gabriel Amos worked with a team to create documents that fooled Citibank into wiring them money in transactions totaling about $27 million. The money came from a Citibank account in New York held by the National Bank of Ethiopia. The con artists posed as Ethiopian bank officials and approved the transactions. They could quickly get loans from the bamboozled financial megalith that never required them to repay.

Not-as-famous Amos has been arrested

He was charged with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. If the Nigerian scammer is convicted, he could spend 30 years in prison.

According to Weiser, the prosecutors traced the scheme back to September of 2008, when Citibank received documents instructing them to accept instructions by fax from the Ethiopian bank. Included was a list of officials who would confirm the requested transactions (each of them a member of the con team, of course). The signatures of the officials on these documents even appeared to match those in Citibank’s records, so it was all accepted.

In October, Citibank received the faxed requests for money to be wired, and it transferred $27 million to accounts in Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Cyprus and the United States. After the ruse was discovered, Citibank credited all lost funds. However, the damage to the bank’s already teetering credibility had long since been done. Now, with banks like Citibank nationwide crying to the government for quick loans to help them remain solvent, it makes you wonder why President Obama and his team continue to put up with bank leadership that fall for schemes like this. If it’s because the verification process itself is flawed, then FIX IT!

Related articles

• Citibank Sends Nigerian Scammer $27 Million [Whoops] (consumerist.com)
• DOJ: Nigerian Scammed Citibank Out of $27 Million (gothamist.com)
• 419 scammer impersonates the nation of Ethiopia, takes $27 million from Citibank (boingboing.net)