Hoax phone call costs hedge fund £742,668 and CFO his job

London

THE finance chief at Fortelus Capital Management LLP got an alarming phone call just as he was getting ready to leave work on a Friday.

The caller said that he was from Coutts, the London-based hedge fund's bank, and warned that there may have been fraudulent activity on the account. Fortelus chief financial officer Thomas Meston was reluctant, but agreed to use the bank's smart card security system to generate codes for the caller to cancel 15 suspicious payments. He hung up just after 6pm, according to court filings.