Recently, a shocking fraud case has emerged in the Crypto Assets field. The victim, Michael Zidell, has filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court of Manhattan, New York, pointing the finger at Citibank, claiming that the bank had significant negligence in preventing suspicious transactions, resulting in losses of up to 20 million dollars.

The scam began in 2023 when the criminals contacted Zidell via the social media platform Facebook under the guise of "Carolyn Parker," luring him to invest in an NFT project. In the following period, Zidell made 43 transfers to multiple bank accounts, with approximately $4 million flowing into a Citibank account of a company named Guju Inc.

The lawsuit documents show that Zidell accuses Citibank of failing to fulfill its anti-money laundering regulatory duties. He believes that the bank should have been alert to these frequent large integer transfers and conducted appropriate investigations. However, Citibank seems to have ignored these suspicious signs, ultimately leading to significant losses for the victims.

The truth about the entire scam only came to light when the trading platform named OpenrarityPro suddenly shut down, but by this time Zidell's funds could not be recovered. This method of scamming using the concepts of virtual currency and NFTs is referred to as "pig butchering" by industry insiders.

This case has raised doubts in the financial sector about the ability of traditional banks to respond to emerging financial crimes. With the rapid development of Crypto Assets and blockchain technology, finding a balance between innovation and regulation has become a new challenge faced by major financial institutions.

This event also serves as a reminder for investors to remain vigilant when venturing into emerging financial sectors, treating investment advice from strangers with caution, especially in transactions involving large sums of money transfer. At the same time, it highlights the need for financial institutions to continuously update and improve their risk prevention and control systems to cope with increasingly complex financial fraud tactics.

Currently, Citibank has not issued an official response regarding this case. As the litigation progresses, this case may have far-reaching implications for anti-money laundering and customer protection policies in the financial industry.