Luxury clothing retailer Oak and Fort Corp. is suing the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and the Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) after fraudsters, using a fake email address impersonating the company’s founder and CEO, made off with $49,000 routed through accounts with the banks.
Oak and Fort filed a notice of civil claim in BC Supreme Court on August 20 against the banks, two unknown ABC Companies and two John Does under aliases Anthony Rusk, Anthony Rusk Ltd., H.A. Dahnoun and Mary Richardson.
According to the claim, an Oak and Fort accounting associate received an email on August 2, 2018, purporting to be from the company’s founder and CEO, Min Kang. With an email address similar to Kang’s, the fraudsters attached invoices for “alleged business development and consultancy professional services.” The first totalled $21,667, and payments were made out to Anthony Rusk to an RBC account supposedly in Vancouver, but deposited into an RBC account in Pickering, Ontario.
The next day, the same accounting employee received another invoice for S27,334 for consulting services from H.A. Dahnoun and its representative Mary Richardson, and payment was deposited to a TD account in Scarborough, Ontario.
Days later, a third invoice arrived for more than $53,000, but the payment was never completed, the lawsuit says.
“Rusk and Dahnoun appear to be entities created for the purpose of defrauding the plaintiff,” the claim states. “The banks opened the accounts for the fraud parties, pursuant to their terms and processes which require account applicants to identify themselves as a person or corporation capable of entering into applicable account agreements with the banks.”
Oak and Fort seeks damages for unjust enrichment, fraudulent misrepresentation and conversion, a judgment of $49,002 and orders compelling the banks to disclose identifying information behind the accounts involved.
The allegations have not been tested or proven in court, and the defendants had not responded to the claim by press time.
