ORLANDO, Fla — “Well, obviously, it was a shock to see all that money gone,” said Misael Rosario.
Rosario is a central Florida businessman who had $6.5 million wiped from his account in a matter of days and is now looking for answers from his bank. Law enforcement helped him recover some of the money, but he’s still out more than $4 million. Court records show scammers may have also done this to another customer at the same bank a few months earlier by using the same method.
Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal and Katie Coronado from our radio partner WDBO have been looking into the case and spoke with Rosario about the impact on him and his family.
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Rosario is suing First Horizon Bank. Two law firms are also suing, claiming First Horizon didn’t do enough to protect their money
Century Metals and Supplies, a central and south Florida company that processes metal used in everything from elevators to roofs, was built on decades of hard work by Misael Rosario.
Rosario said, “I founded this company 38 years ago with $10,000.”
In March, a large chunk of life savings disappeared when around $6.5 million left his First Horizon account over a three-day period. Rosario said his wife received an email from First Horizon early in the morning on the third day after 15 fraudulent wire transfers went out.
“We were totally in shock by the situation, we had never issued any volume of wires like that,” Rosario explained.
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He claims he was then locked out of his other accounts and First Horizon Bank offered no explanation. He said he’s disappointed that more than $4 million is still missing and hasn’t been returned to his account. Since hiring an attorney, they’ve learned he’s not the only one.
Attorney Victor Velarde from Fowler White Burnett Attorneys at Law represents Misael Rosario. He said, “This exact same scheme was perpetrated on another First Horizon bank customer just two months earlier.”
Velarde pointed to another case in Palm Beach County, where a law firm filed suit claiming more than $17 million disappeared its trust account in January. In that case $6.5 million is still missing.
In both cases, the plaintiffs claim, at least some of the money went to an account linked to the same Chinese company. Velarde said scammers called First Horizon claiming to be the account holder, claiming they got a new phone, and requested a one-time passcode to access the account. According to Velarde, the scammers were able to verify their identity with publicly available information.
“Nothing changed. First Horizon fell to the same trick to the same recipients,” Velarde said.
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In an email to Action 9 radio partner WDBO, a First Horizon bank spokesperson wrote:
“We have filed a motion for partial dismissal, which is attached. Although I can’t provide any additional information at this time, we intend to vigorously defend the case.”
In that motion, First Horizon contends, this case should be argued using state law on wire-transfers only. It wants the claim that the bank also breached the contract with the client thrown out and wants mention of similar cases removed as well. The state law on wire transfers requires banks to implement commercially reasonable security procedures, and Rosario’s legal team believes it can prove First Horizon failed to do that and believes Rosario should get the money back.
“A lot of that money was basically going to my grandkids and our future. I mean, eventually… I’m 68 years old, I got to retire eventually,” Rosario said.
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In Rosario’s case and the other case in Palm Beach County, the plaintiffs claim the caller’s voice didn’t sound like the real bank customers. All three of the lawsuits are now in federal court.
The FBI notes it important in situations like this to report it right away. The sooner it’s reported, the better chance the transactions can be reversed. You can make the report to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.
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