On April 4, 2024, PLF attorney James Bonebrake won a victory for his client, Scott Jacobson, in arbitration against Citibank. The case has been the subject of two NBC Channel 5 News investigative reports, which can be accessed here. (pon un hipervinculo aca que lleve a los videos que estan puestos aca; esos videos deberian ire en la Pestana de media)
Scott discovered fraudulent transfers when he routinely checked his account balance at a Citibank ATM machine on October 14, 2021. In shock at seeing his funds depleted, he immediately filed an affidavit with Citibank, swearing that the monies had been fraudulently removed. However, Citibank refused to return the monies to the account. Because Scott’s phone had likely been “phished” or hacked by a fraudster impersonating Scott to complete the transfers, Citibank asserted that the transactions were not Citibank’s fault and that they reasonably followed all federal and state laws when they allegedly confirmed the transfers via texts to Scott’s phone and via one email. However, Citibank allowed the texts and email to be destroyed and never produced them to Scott, relying instead on internal business records created on the dates of the transfers “confirming” that the texts and email had, in fact, been sent and responses received from Scott on those same dates.
After full discovery, an arbitrator in April 2024 found in favor of Scott and against Citibank on all substantive issues and attorney fees because of Citibank’s intentional destruction of crucial evidence at a time when it knew the transactions were being challenged by Scott as fraudulent. Citibank’s appeals were denied, causing additional interest to be awarded to Scott.
