Shocking $20 Million Crypto Romance Scam: Citibank in the Hot Seat!

New York Lawsuit Claims Bank's Negligence Led to Massive Loss

Hang onto your hats, folks, because this story's a wild ride! A New York lawsuit is lighting up Citibank like a fireworks show, accusing them of dropping the ball big time after one of their customers got fleeced out of a staggering $20 million in a crypto romance scam.

Michael Zidell, the guy who got scammed, isn't messing around. He slapped Citibank with a lawsuit on June 24, demanding they cough up some serious cash for damages and legal fees. Zidell's not holding back, claiming the bank totally snoozed on the job, ignoring red flags and letting a bunch of sketchy wire transfers slip right through their fingers.

So, what's the deal with this scam? It's called "pig butchering," and it's as nasty as it sounds. Scammers cozy up to victims online, pretending to be their new best friend or lover, then sucker them into fake investments. It's like watching a horror movie, but with real money on the line!

Zidell's nightmare started in January 2023 when he got a message on Facebook from a woman calling herself Carolyn Parker. She said she was a business owner in California, and before he knew it, they were chatting up a storm on WeChat. Things got cozy fast, and Zidell thought he'd found the real deal.

But then, in February 2023, Parker started talking up these non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and got Zidell to invest through a shady site called OpenrarityPro.com. She claimed she was raking in millions and even showed him some fancy account statements. It was like watching a master con artist at work!

Zidell, caught up in the romance, started sending money left and right to accounts listed on the website, thinking he was getting in on the next big thing in NFTs.

He ended up making 43 transfers across different banks, and 12 of those went straight to Citibank accounts under the name Guju Inc. We're talking almost $4 million here!

Get this: the first transfer to Guju Inc. was bigger than the company's entire yearly revenue! And it totally blew past what they claimed they'd be doing when they opened their account. It's like waving a giant red flag and expecting no one to notice!

Zidell's lawsuit is laying it all out there, saying Citibank missed every single warning sign. We're talking huge, round-number transfers that didn't match up with what Guju Inc. said they did for a living. It's like they were asleep at the wheel!

And the cherry on top? Zidell's saying Citibank blew off federal Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering laws. They had all the signs of shady business staring them in the face and did nothing!

These pig butchering scams are no joke, folks. The FBI's 2024 Internet Crime Report says they're some of the nastiest crypto scams out there, costing people a mind-blowing $5.8 billion last year. It's like a crime wave hitting the digital world!

And guess who's getting hit the hardest? Older Americans, with folks over 60 losing a whopping $2.8 billion to crypto scams alone. It's a gut punch to see our elders getting taken advantage of like this.