Yes, that’s right. Citibank, one of the largest financial institutions in the country, fell for the old 419 spam. Federal authorities have indicted a Nigerian man for attempting to scam the bank out of over $27 million! Here’s how the scam worked, according to the New York Times:

          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.

Amos and his crew would have gotten away with it too, had they not unwittingly directed the bank to wire the funds to what turned out to be invalid accounts. Those banks returned the money to Citibank because they could not process the transactions, and thus the scam was revealed. Simply amazing that Citibank could be scammed so easily. They’ve since credited the National Bank of Ethopia and pledge to improve their security procedures so it doesn’t happen again.

Amos, who lives in Singapore but was arrested while trying to enter the U.S. in Los Angeles, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud. Officials say he is hoping to make a plea deal with prosecutors.