A Defence officer who lost $250,000 to offshore fraudsters says ASB should reimburse his loss because a branch manager helped him complete the huge money transfer, missing crucial red flags that he was being scammed.  

The man is one of least three victims who lost a combined $550,000 through an elaborate international investment ruse last year. 

The scam involved a Queensland money mule who laundered the stolen funds through a New Zealand-based ANZ account before sending it to an Australian crypto trading company and Vietnamese account.  

It’s understood Australian police are now involved in the investigation. And though the Auckland victim is accusing the banks of negligence, they are both denying liability and insist they did nothing wrong.  

Losing his retirement savings had had profound emotional and physical effects, the man said. 

“I am extremely upset and emotional about what has happened to me. My anxiety levels are extremely high. I’m devastated.” 

The victim, who is an officer in the armed services, had recently sold a house and wanted to invest the proceeds in a low-risk investment to help fund his retirement. 

He found a website for PT Wealth Management purportedly offering 90-day government-backed bonds with SBS bank. He was was contacted by a British investment adviser calling himself Sam Clarke, who convinced him to invest $250,000. 

The victim says he conducted due diligence, checking both the FMA’s public scam warning page and running a Trust Pilot search for poor customer reviews or warning signs of a scam. 

An FMA warning about “imposter websites” was only issued a month after he had been fleeced. 

He was sent payment instructions for an ANZ “holding account” under the name CADT Holdings Ltd and visited the Takapuna ASB branch to make the transfer in person on April 13 last year. 

Due to the size of the payment, a branch manager helped the victim complete the transfer, asking him about the nature of the investment and whether he had sent money to the ANZ recipient account before. 

Staff at ASB's Takapuna branch helped the victim send his $250,000 to scammers. Photo / Google 

Having a manager oversee the transfer gave him confidence he was in safe hands and that anything suspicious would be picked up by the bank, he said. 

The payment occurred just a month after the Banking Ombudsman warned NZ banks about the rise in fake investment scams, recommending they provide additional customer warnings and update staff training. 

The victim now believes a supposed SBS bond investment going to an ANZ account should have triggered alarm bells at ASB and further scrutiny. 

Victim signs property contract while awaiting bond payout 

Following the transfer, the victim signed a sale contract for a property. As settlement approached he contacted Clarke to arrange withdrawal of his money when the three-month investment term expired. 

However, a June 15 email bounced back and the victim realised he’d been scammed. 

The man was unable to cancel the property contract and had to borrow $150,000 from family which he is now paying back. 

After alerting ASB to the fraud, only $139 could be recovered. Police launched an investigation which identified multiple victims. Fraud investigators told the man his money had been siphoned to Vietnam. 

ASB chief executive Vittoria Shortt. Photo / Supplied 

The man complained to ASB but a final response letter denied liability, saying banks were not required to make “extensive inquiries” about recipient account holders and ASB was acting on his instructions. 

“The obligation is on the customer to satisfy themselves about the legitimacy of the recipient and the purpose of the transfer.” 

The letter said the manager had conducted due diligence on the payment “and did not observe any red flags”. 

While ASB found it had followed correct processes, it agreed to make a $1000 goodwill gesture to acknowledge the man’s “awful experience”. 

The man acknowledged he had been “sucked in” by the scammers and was partly responsible for losing the money. 

But he said the criminals were skilled con artists with expert knowledge of the financial sector and the documents they produced were extremely convincing. 

He believed ASB had failed in its duty of care. 

The victim has lodged a complaint about his case with Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden. Photo / File 

He also claimed ANZ was negligent in harbouring a money mule, raising questions about its anti-money laundering obligations. 

He has now lodged a complaint with the Banking Ombudsman, Nicola Sladden. 

The man said he’d kept the fraud secret from family and friends. 

“I have been dealing with this on my own for the last 12 months. 

“My kids know because they rallied around and stopped me jumping off a cliff. It really did knock me around.” 

ASB, ANZ respond 

ASB executive general manager of technology and operations, David Bullock, said the branch manager followed proper process when processing the victim’s payment and was satisfied with the answers he provided. 

PT Wealth Management is the name of a legitimate investment management company and ASB was not aware of the scam until the FMA’s warning was posted a month later. 

While the victim referenced “bonds”, it was “entirely feasible he’d been transferring funds to a wealth manager to invest in bonds, which was “common practice”. 

“Scammers have very sophisticated methods of operating, they understand how banks work, and they are adept at creating believable scenarios to manipulate their victims.” 

Banks were currently unable to verify that the name of the recipient account matched the customer’s intended payee. The sector was working on a technical solution which it hoped to role out late this year. 

ASB was spending nearly $100 million on preventing fraud and scams to help keep customers safe, but customer vigilance remained essential. 

ANZ said this appeared to be a “terrible case” of a customer setting up a mule account to help criminals steal money. 

ANZ said it met proper due diligence and anti-money laundering requirements when setting up the business account. 

“The company was registered with the New Zealand Companies Office and we appropriately sought information regarding the nature of this business.” 

After being notified of the fraud, ANZ blocked the account but was unable to recover the stolen funds. 

Anyone who allowed their bank accounts to be used as mule accounts were enabling these scams and risked becoming part of an international criminal network. 

Waitematā CIB Detective Senior Sergeant Ryan Bunting said the three victims transferred money to the suspect’s ANZ account between April and May last year, losing $250,000, $200,000 and $100,000 respectively. 

Investigations showed the director of CADT Holdings was based in Queensland. The company had since been deregistered and the stolen money transferred to Australian digital asset company Zerocap Pty Ltd, or Vietnamese-based company IGB Holdings Ltd. 

Police had requested assistance from Australian authorities. 

Lane Nichols is a senior journalist and deputy head of news based in Auckland. Before joining the Herald in 2012, he spent a decade at Wellington’s Dominion Post and the Nelson Mail.