Scoular Company Loses $17.2 Million in Cyber Fraud

An FBI inquiry into the Chinese bank account connected the overseas wire fraud that resulted in The Scoular Company losing $17.2 million has come up empty, according to FBI court documents filed in the case.

In June 2014, The Scoular Company’s financial controller received several emails purportedly from the company Chief Executive Officer, Chuck Elsea, and its auditing firm. Acting upon these emails, $17.2 million was wire transferred to a bank account in China. Unfortunately, the emails were fraudulent and court documents show that false email addresses were set up in Germany, France and Israel and computer servers in Moscow.

Despite that the FBI investigation showed that the account to which the money was wired had been cleaned out, The Scoular Company has expressed hope that the funds may be recovered.

Elsea was reassuring in a recent statement saying, “We are fortunate, as an employee-owned company with a very strong balance sheet and robust ongoing business, that this will not affect us, our customers, our business operations, or our strategic growth… we are very confident that our internal controls and the interbank systems we utilize are advanced and secure.”