A New York judge has ruled that JPMorgan Chase must face a lawsuit from the French manufacturer of Ray-Ban glasses, which argues that the bank failed to stop suspicious transactions after cybercriminals looted $272 million from its account.
US District Judge Lewis Liman ruled that a Thailand unit of EssilorLuxottica can go ahead with a suit aiming to prove that JPMorgan violated a New York law governing commercial contracts that requires refunds of unauthorised payment orders, according to Reuters.
In the suit, which was filed last April, Essilor said that JPMorgan should have detected, reported and blocked suspicious payments that occurred in the last few months of 2019.
The criminals had recruited one of its employees in Thailand to make the fraudulent transactions, which resulted in regular monthly transfers jumping from $15 million to $100 million.
The suit says that JPMorgan ignored the numerous red flags that should have been raised from the unusual pattern of transactions. The French firm says the cash transfers were all made “in round dollar amounts (i.e., no cents), which was a dramatic departure from prior periods where round dollar transfers were relatively infrequent".
Liman rejected JPMorgan's claim that the client had "authorised" the transfers because there were two approvals for each transfer, says Reuters.