the story tries its best to make it sound like some defect in the bank's handling of the transfers. although there were minor issues, they were correctly caught

the story tries its best to make it sound like some defect in the bank's handling of the transfers. although there were minor issues, they were correctly caught via "defense in depth" techniques, ie many many layers of process. the story focuses far too much on the bank's handling of the transfers and not enough on the obviousness of a standard con and gullibility of senior government finance ministers. where these guys really really went wrong was not having enough of a starter fund so as to plant moles (who would later be abandoned to the police with no useful info) within the bank that would have allowed the transfers to go through. amateur hour, really.