Italian Bank Transfers €95 Million as More Than €36 Million Reaches Bitcoin Wallets
Fideuram’s former chairman authorized 11 payments after fake WhatsApp messages and a call using a cloned lawyer’s voice. The unrecovered loss was €39.5 million.
A suspected impersonation scheme led Italian private bank Fideuram to transfer more than €95 million in 11 payments, with more than €36 million later moving through international accounts into two Bitcoin wallets.
Paolo Molesini, then Fideuram’s chairman, first received a WhatsApp message from someone posing as Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Carlo Messina. The message claimed the banking group needed Fideuram to finance a confidential international acquisition before Italy’s securities regulator, Consob, could stop it.
Molesini then received a call using the voice of Paolo Nastasi, managing partner of A&O Shearman’s Italian office. Nastasi was not involved and did not know his voice had been used.
The callers sent 11 documents, including a confidentiality agreement, an authorization purportedly signed by Messina and payment instructions. A senior funds-and-payments official at Fideuram also received a call from someone posing as the bank’s chief executive before Molesini ordered the transfers.
The payments went mainly to China and Hong Kong, with some funds sent to Portugal. Fideuram’s internal warning system was activated soon afterward. A Chinese bank blocked and returned €42 million, while Portuguese authorities froze another €13 million under a seizure order.
A Milan judge’s ruling placed the remaining loss at €39.5 million. More than €36 million moved through accounts in Malta, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, then through a Canadian remittance platform before reaching two Bitcoin wallets.
Prosecutors are using cross-border judicial assistance to trace the funds before they can be converted into cash. A 48-year-old Israeli man is a suspect in an investigation into aggravated fraud and identity theft. Investigators’ financial-flow analysis indicated that nearly €4 million converted into cryptocurrency reached the suspect.
Fideuram is part of Intesa Sanpaolo’s private banking business and manages about €450 billion in assets. Molesini resigned as chairman on March 12, citing personal reasons. He is not a target of the investigation, and Fideuram has not filed a lawsuit against him.
