Failed O.C. bank says it lost millions to high-tech fraud
By RONALD CAMPBELLA
Los Angeles County businessman is accused of stealing at least $3.5 million in a high-tech skimming operation at an Orange County bank seized last month by federal regulators.
The failure of Westminster-based First Vietnamese American Bank cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation $9.6 million.
Some 300 businesses and nonprofits have sued the bank and Chatsworth businessman Masih Madani, alleging Madani stole their money under the bank's nose. First Vietnamese in turn has sued Madani and a second failed institution, Oakland-based Innovative Bank.
The cases shed light on the vast but little-known Automated Clearinghouse, which handled nearly $20 trillion in 2009 alone. Operating through the Federal Reserve Board, banks and "third-party processors" such as Madani's company, Opus Ventures, individuals and companies make billions of payments each year.
You probably use the system to automatically deposit your paycheck or Social Security check or automatically debit your mortgage or gym fee from your bank account.
For the rest of the article go to http://articles.ocregister.com/2010-12-08/news/25185657_1_bank-account-first-vietnamese-american-bank-orange-county-bank
According to court documents, losses from stored value cards could exceed $80 million. While MSRN finds this amount highly unlikely, these losses could have been prevented had other financial institutions performed to industry standards as did FVAB. FVAB acted swiftly to prevent losses and end the fraud including the fraud perpetrated on innocent card holders.
Court documents claim, "Mr. Madani admitted to officers of FVAB and to FVAB’s corporate counsel that he and Opus had improperly taken over $3 million in ACH funds while Innovative Bank served as the ODFI for Mr. Madani, Opus, and possibly others. As a result of learning that Mr. Madani had stolen ACH money, FVAB instituted immediate action to stop any and all transactions related in any way to Mr. Madani."
"Mr. Madani approached FVAB with a request that it perform other banking services. Mr. Madani represented that there was a large market for banks to issue Stored-Value Cards. These cards represent money on deposit with the issuer, and are similar to debit cards. One major difference between Stored-Value Cards and debit cards is that debit cards are usually issued in the name of the individual account holders, while Stored-Value Cards are usually anonymous……
2 comments:
I invested $300,000.00 with Masih Madani for stock in Transysa Corp. and have never received any return. I feel this must be part of his scam. Can you give me more info regarding him and his companies?
Neville Group, Panama
This entity was formed in March or April of 2005 and is believed to have been resident in Vanuatu. There were three partners in this entity. Officially the President was Orlando Garcia, the Secretary is Jose A. Vargas Pineda and the Treasurer is Nelva Vargas.
This entity operated what appeared to be a call center from the 7th Floor of the Banco de Boston Building on Via Espania in Panama City. The Company maintained an account at Credicorp Bank Calle. The offices of Neville Group in Panama and TRANSYSA were one in the same. It appears that the legal name of Transysa was Transactional Services, S.A. for some purposes. This entity was formed on 14 April 2005 and the Registered Agent was the Panamanian law firm of Molino y Mulino. This law firm is the same firm that represented Neville Group and Monier.
The Neville Group and Transysa which claimed to be a transaction processing operation and had a web site of www.transya.com, shared the same telephone number. This group also claimed that their facility is approved by Master Card and VISA.
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