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Citibank denies

$ 2.8 million

hacker frand

LONDON: Citicorp's Citibank of the world's largest banks, denied on Friday that a Russian computer hacker broke into its security system and removed $2.8 million from corporate client accounts.

During an extradition hearing here on Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department accused Vladimir Levin of directing money from Citibank's Wall Street computer in New York to accounts in Finland, Israel and San Francisco. Financial Times newspaper said on Friday that Levin removed $2.8 million from the accounts of corporate clients. A Citibank spokeswoman said that figure was misleading.

"The $2.8 million figure represents the total amount they attempted to defraud while they were being monitored. No losses were incurred in these transactions," she said.

The bank admitted there had been a series of attempted electronic break-ins into Citibank New York last year but only about $400,000 had been transferred and "not been recovered."

"As soon as the intrusions were detected, Citibank began to work with law-enforcement authorities to monitor the perpetrators and ultimately catch them," the bank said in a statement released in London.

Levin is fighting extradition to the United States. The 24-year-old mathematics graduate has been in custody since he was arrested while passing through Britain in April,

The hearing at London's Bow Street magistrates' court heard that Levin committed the fraud with the help of another unnamed Russian. The court clerk said Levin faced about 100 charges.

Since the attempted break-ins last July and August the bank said it has upgraded all security procedures on its systems.

"At no time were any client funds at risk," the bank said.

The Financial Times reported the two men allegedly transferred funds using bank accounts held by Levin's accomplice in San Francisco. Levin is also accused of using a computer terminal at a St Petersburg computer software company to break into the Citibank system.

The Citibank spokeswoman said the bank spotted the transfers from accounts in New York to accounts with Bank of America and alerted them.

Levin's lawyer has argued that there is no evidece that any computer in the United States had been used. The hearing was adjourned until September 15 and Levin remains in custody.

Two people in the United States, one in Israel and two in the Netherlands have also been arrested in connection with the alleged fraud, Citibank said.-Reuter