Millionaire Files $36 Million Lawsuit Against Citibank

Now that Citibank is poised to be the biggest bank in the world (after Oprah), relatives are coming out of the woodwork asking for loans and if Citibank lost weight recently because it’s looking great. Then there’s a German man named Peter Mikutta, who also wants a piece of the Citibank pie – only he’s suing rather than wooing.

What you may not know about Peter, though, is that he’s a millionaire. He’s also a recluse living in Switzerland and some sort of data technology baron. So the $36 million he’s seeking is more of a principle of the thing lawsuit rather than anything else; clearly, he doesn’t need the money. And clearly, he needs to meet me, claim me as some kind of long-lost son, and, you know. Live a very long time. >wink<

Pete’s suing Citibank for dereliction of its fiduciary duties by failing to check movements on his account. Said movements, allegedly, resulted in Mikutta being defrauded of millions.

In a separate, but related, lawsuit, Zurich public prosecutors are accusing a former Citibank employee who went to work for Mr Mikutta of fraud and falsifying documents amounting to $93.6 million.

The civil and criminal cases allege the former Citibank employee falsified Mr Mikutta’s signature on documents to divert funds from his account for her own uses. The employee’s lawyer, Tanja Knodel, said her client was innocent until proven guilty.

Mr Mikutta’s lawyers allege the bank accepted faxed instructions – sometimes involving multi-million sums – without requesting an original signature or verbally checking the instructions with the account holder.

The case will bring a lot of scrutiny on the romance of Swiss bank accounts, long the bastion of ill-gotten booty and mob dollars – I’m sorry: waste management dollars.

The civil case follows attempts by Mr Mikutta’s lawyers to negotiate an out of court settlement, which they say Citibank rejected.