419? No, we’re not talking about C’s share price, which is probably closer to half that. We’re talking about the Bandit Bank gettin’ swindled by Nigerians, no mask required. From the desk of Mr. H.E. Ato Newaye-kirstos Gebreab, your assistance is needed:

To carry out the elaborate scheme, prosecutors in New York said on Friday, the man, identified as Paul Gabriel Amos, 37, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to create official-looking documents that instructed Citibank to wire the money in two dozen transactions to accounts that Mr. Amos and the others controlled around the world.

The money came from a Citibank account in New York held by the National Bank of Ethiopia, that country’s central bank. Prosecutors said the conspirators, contacted by Citibank to verify the transactions, posed as Ethiopian bank officials and approved the transfers.

And, actually, this is different from your typical Nigerian bank scam that has become known as a 419 – typically, in Nigerian bank-fraud cases, the victim is complicit in giving up their information because they actually believe a stranger wants to transfer them the proceeds from a hundred million dollars in sales of blood diamonds. In this case, it was Citigroup committing the abject fail by accepting cellphone numbers in Nigeria and London as official ways to reach an Ethiopian central bank. Do they even try to not fail over there?

(h/t to Kate K for sending me this link. I’ve been on vacation a few days, missing all the good stuff!)