For many years, you’ve heard us talking about these third-party liability cases with fraud.

Victims of Fraud
If you’ve been a victim of fraud, you had money taken from your bank account, you’ve had money taken from you by a Ponzi scheme. More and more clients are waking up to the fact of suing the bank that allowed this to happen.

Wells Fargo Lawsuit
In this case you see on the screen, there’s a lawsuit against Wells Fargo accusing them of aiding and embedding a Ponzi scheme. Now Wells Fargo did not do the Ponzi scheme, that’s not what they’re saying. But what they’re saying is they allowed it to be easy for a scammer to steal the money. It’s like vicarious liability, and more and more banks are being held to a higher standard when their clients, their depositors, lose money because the bank is what makes it easy for the scammers to get money.

Changing Nature of Fraud
You don’t have to break into someone’s house and stick them up with a gun anymore. You can just tell the victim to wire transfer from the bank account, and more and more courts are hearing these cases, saying, “Look, you should not have allowed this to happen, you should have flagged this as a red flag.”

Banks’ Responsibilities
Banks have a requirement for certain reporting under suspicious activity reports, and they have certain regulations they have to follow. If a bank is making it easy for a scammer, a Ponzi schemer, to steal money from a depositor, they can be held liable.

The Bernie Madoff Case
In fact, if you go back to the biggest Ponzi scheme in recent history, the Bernie Madoff case in New York City back in the 1990s and early 2000s really, most of the victims got their money back not from Bernie Madoff but from the banks that were part of the transaction process. Even though they weren’t in on the scam, they had to come up with money.

Importance of Third-Party Liability
So third-party liability is a big thing. If you’re a victim, make sure your attorney knows about it. If you want more information, click the link below to get more details on consulting for third-party liability.

Additional Parties
You also want to search to see if there are other third parties that may be liable—accountants, advertisers, consultants—that may have made it easier for the scammer to take your money.