Citibank is accused of ignoring signs of a $20 million Crypto Assets love eyewash.

Gate News bot reports that, according to CoinTelegraph, Citibank has been sued by a person claiming to be a victim of a Crypto Assets romance eyewash, accusing the bank of ignoring warning signs that led to the scammers making off with $20 million.

On Tuesday, in a lawsuit filed in the Manhattan federal court, the plaintiff Michael Zidell accused Citibank of "turning a blind eye to its statutory duties and obligations," allowing him to deposit millions of dollars into the accounts of fraudsters at the bank.

Qider said that he transferred $20 million to scammers through dozens of transactions across multiple banks, with nearly $4 million going into their account at Citibank.

Complaints claim that these transactions are part of a carefully designed love eyewash, where scammers use fake identities to establish romantic online relationships with victims, luring them into participating in fraudulent investment schemes.

Zider stated that the scam began in early 2023 when someone contacted him on Facebook, claiming to be a business owner named "Caroline Parker". Zider maintained a "friendly social relationship" with her but later realized that a romantic relationship was developing between them.

After dating for a month, Parker told Zidel that he should invest in non-fungible tokens, as she claimed to have made millions of dollars this way and directed him to a trading platform.

Qideler decided to invest in NFTs and transferred funds into multiple bank accounts provided by the trading platform. The platform informed him that due to the large volume of customer deposits, multiple banks needed to be involved.

He said that in the coming months, he transferred funds 43 times to various bank accounts, totaling over 20 million dollars, but by the end of April, the platform's website "suddenly disappeared," and his millions of dollars vanished as well.

The complaint alleges that Citibank processed 12 transfers totaling approximately $4 million, with the recipient being a company named Guju Inc.

It also accused the bank of ignoring "danger signals" in the Guju account and claimed that "huge sums of money and other matters should have prompted the bank to investigate suspicious activities."

The lawsuit stated: "(Citibank) failed to implement adequate security measures, failed to detect obviously suspicious transactions, and failed to monitor accounts, despite trusts and other individuals transferring large amounts of integer funds into and out of the accounts in a suspicious manner."

Zider stated that Citibank assisted and abetted this alleged fraud and accused the bank of negligence, claiming it "has an obligation to carefully monitor suspicious transactions."