Lakeland Financial in Warsaw, Ind., reported lower second-quarter profit after it fell victim to international wire fraud.
The $6.5 billion-asset company said in a press release that its earnings fell by 43% from a year earlier, to $14.6 million. The results included a $13.6 million wire fraud loss, net of tax.
Lakeland said it discovered the fraud on June 30. The fraudulent activity resulted from “a highly sophisticated business email compromise directed by a foreign threat actor that targeted a specific general ledger account at the bank.”
A single employee email account outside the company’s network was compromised and a forged wire transfer form was used.
The company said that a third-party forensic investigation determined that no client accounts were threatened and there was no attempt to access any client data or funds. The probe concluded that Lakeland’s network “was never penetrated.”
Lakeland said it notified its insurance carriers about the fraud and hired a forensic technology investigation firm to evaluate the situation. The company also notified the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Lakeland has also “communicated actively with its primary regulators,” the release said.