Austrian court rejects FACC lawsuit against ex-CEO in cyber fraud case (updated)
27/11/2019 18:05
(Adds FACC comment, paragraphs 5 and 9)
VIENNA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - An Austrian court on Wednesday
threw out a lawsuit brought by Chinese-owned plane parts maker
FACC FACC.VI against its former chief executive over whether
he should have done more to stop a cyber fraud that cost it tens
of millions of euros.
The company was tricked into transferring 54 million euros
($59.5 million) to foreign accounts in a so-called fake
president fraud, according to a summary of the lawsuit issued
last year by the court in Ried im Innkreis, where FACC is based.
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Fake president frauds typically entail employees being asked
to transfer company funds into alternative accounts by
individuals posing as senior managers.
The firm made the fraud public in January 2016 and fired its
finance chief Minfen Gu the following month. It dismissed Chief
Executive Walter Stephan in May of that year.
It later sued the former executives for a collective 10
million euros. They denied wrongdoing. An FACC spokesman said on
Wednesday that the damages sought had since increased to 43
million euros.
The case against Minfen was dismissed earlier, and on
Wednesday the court threw out the lawsuit against Stephan, a
spokeswoman for the court said.
"The claim was rejected in full on the basis that there was
no failure of Dr Stephan to fulfil his supervisory duties," the
spokeswoman said.
FACC had alleged Minfen and Walter failed to set up adequate
internal controls and to meet their obligations of collegial
cooperation and supervision, according to the court's earlier
summary of the case.
"We are waiting for the written ruling and will then
consider taking further legal steps. But that can take weeks,"
the FACC spokesman said.
($1 = 0.9073 euros)
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FACC sues former CEO, CFO for $11 mln over cyber fraud failings
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(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Additional reporting by
Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich; Editing by Jan Harvey and Lisa
Shumaker)
((francois.murphy@thomsonreuters.com; +43 1 531 12 254;))