Cybercriminals stole $15.5M from affluent LI village bank account, new suit claims: ‘shocking incompetence and negligence’

Cybercriminals drained over $15.5 million from the account of a Nassau County utility — thanks to the “shocking incompetence and negligence” of the First National Bank of Long Island, a new lawsuit alleges.

The Melville-based bank “blindly accepted and relied on … forged authorizations” from scammers to add online international and domestic wire transfers to the Garden City Park Water and Fire District account, according to the suit.

Hackers then promptly funneled $15.5 million — or roughly 85% of the total balance — to various accounts in China, Mexico and the US, states the suit, filed by Garden City Park Water and Fire in Nassau County Supreme Court Wednesday.

While law enforcement helped the district recover $4.4 million of the stolen funds, the suit claims the bank is on the hook for the remaining $11.1 million.

“The scale of the financial loss to the District is staggering,” the complaint reads, “as is the level of gross malfeasance and conscience-shocking incompetence demonstrated by the Bank in its failure to protect the security and integrity of the District’s bank accounts from the fraud.”

Scammers posing as someone from Garden City Park Water and Fire — which provides the posh Long Island district of about 20,000 with potable water, fire and emergency response services — sent the bank an email last July requesting authorization forms to make changes to the account, according to the suit.

The bank quickly complied — without taking precautions that “the changes that it made to the District’s existing online banking relationship with the Bank were duly and properly authorized and approved by the District,” the lawsuit claims.

The swindlers returned the emailed forms to the bank with “blatant” forged signatures authorizing online international and domestic wire transfers on the account, the suit states.

Three days later, the staggering sum was siphoned out over 15 transfers in the course of four hours, according to the filing.

Ten of the transfers exceeded the bank’s own daily wire limit of $2 million, the suit states.

The district accuses the bank of being “grossly negligent” by showing a “reckless disregard” for the entity’s rights and acting “without the exercise of even slight care or slight diligence,” per the complaint.

“As fiscally responsible stewards, we are undertaking this legal action because the District should not suffer for the Bank’s failures and incompetence,” the Garden City Park Water/Fire District commissioners said in a statement Thursday.

“We will continue to do everything possible to fight for our residents and hold responsible parties accountable.”

The district’s lead attorney, Jon Ward, and its co-managing member, Sahn Ward Braff Coschignano, added in a joint statement that what allegedly occurred was “every bank customer’s nightmare.”

“The District relied on their bank to protect the security and integrity of its deposits, and First National Bank of Long Island failed,” they said. “Now, we are asking the Court to hold First National Bank of Long Island accountable for its failure.”

First National Bank of Long Island did not respond to requests for comment.