Former Fideuram boss defrauded via WhatsApp and AI; 36 million gone
The international fraud dates back to last February, when Paolo Molesini, then chairman of Fideuram (a subsidiary of Intesa), received – or rather, believed he had received, as he would realise shortly afterwards – a WhatsApp message from Carlo Messina, a director of the parent company, Banca Intesa
The former chairman of Fideuram , Paolo Molesini , fell victim to a €36 million scam triggered by a fake WhatsApp message purportedly sent by Intesa banker Carlo Messina. This was reported today by the Corriere della Sera, which explained that the affair could have had far worse consequences, given that a large proportion of the approximately 95 million that had left the institution’s coffers has been recovered abroad (either independently or with the assistance of the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office).
The international fraud dates back to last February when Molesini, then chairman of Fideuram (a subsidiary of Intesa), received – or rather, believed he had received, as he would realise shortly afterwards – a WhatsApp message from Carlo Messina, a director of the parent company, Banca Intesa. In the message, the purported Messina emphasised the urgency of carrying out, via Fideuram’s treasury department (due to certain practical reasons that would prevent Intesa from handling the matter itself), a series of bank transfers aimed at ensuring Intesa did not miss out on a financial transaction abroad that was of interest to the bank.
Next, the gang stages another plausible communication with the chairman of Fideuram: this time, the person phoning him (or, rather, appearing to phone him) is a lawyer from a leading international law firm, Paolo Nastasi, managing partner of A&O Shearman Italia, who is completely uninvolved and unaware of the scam and is being used as an intermediary in the transaction promoted by the fake Messina. He is a corporate lawyer whom Moresini knows, and if the voice sounds exactly like his, it is because the fraudsters have skilfully replicated it using artificial intelligence tools. And so the bank transfers begin, mainly to China and Hong Kong. However, the alarm is raised and Fideuram activates the international interbank cooperation systems, which enable the recovery of a large part of the loot. At least 36 million are still missing, having vanished during conversion into cryptocurrencies, which investigators are now trying to trace through letters rogatory sent across the globe before the fraudsters manage to cash them in.
