Former Citi VP of Treasury Sentenced

In this age of compliance and tight security, how can one still manage to embezzlement more than $22 million?

Well Mr. Gary Foster did, the former vice president at Citigroup Inc.’s treasury finance department was sentenced to 97 months in prison for fraud related to his embezzlement. Foster embezzled funds from various Citigroup accounts by transferring money to Citigroup's cash account and then wiring it to his personal bank account.

Foster concealed his thefts with various false accounting entries, making the Citi cash account appear in balance and placing a fraudulent contract or deal number in the reference line of the wire transfer instructions.

Made me wonder, which accounting system were they using that nobody can even catch this kind of false transactions especially during month-end reconciliation. I guess if you work for a large multinational bank, it'll take a few cycle before you can confirm that there's fraud or breakage in the process. But mostly this can be remediated by constant communication between people who audit and reconciles cash.