New York’s attorney general sued Citibank, N.A. in January 2024, alleging that the bank failed to protect customers from online-account takeovers and unlawfully denied some fraud reimbursement claims. The lawsuit is not a finding of wrongdoing: a federal court let the state’s core Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) claim proceed in January 2025, then stayed the case in April 2025 while Citi pursued an interlocutory appeal.
What New York alleges Citi did
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the lawsuit on January 30, 2024. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) alleges that Citi did not maintain adequate online safeguards, failed to respond promptly or effectively to warning signs of fraud, misled customers about their rights after accounts were compromised, and unlawfully rejected reimbursement claims. The state says customers lost millions of dollars, including in some cases their life savings; the OAG’s cited materials do not establish a specific aggregate total.
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The OAG says suspicious activity included account access from unfamiliar devices or new locations and changes to usernames or passwords. It describes one customer who was allegedly tricked into calling a fraudulent support number and then lost access to her account. According to the state, Citi approved a second $35,000 wire transfer without contacting her directly. That is an example alleged by the OAG, not a finding by the court or evidence that every reported case followed the same pattern. Read the OAG’s announcement.
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The dispute includes whether the EFTA and its implementing Regulation E cover consumer-account debits connected to wire transfers. New York argued that the transfers at issue were unauthorized electronic fund transfers subject to consumer protections. On January 21, 2025, the court rejected Citi’s argument that a statutory exclusion necessarily barred the state’s core EFTA claim. It allowed that claim to continue while dismissing the case in other respects.
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The ruling addressed whether the claim could proceed under the statute; it did not decide that Citi’s alleged security failures or reimbursement denials occurred. The OAG summarized the decision and quoted James saying, “When New Yorkers deposit their money in a bank, they expect it to be kept safe from scammers and thieves.” Read the OAG’s statement on the ruling.
Case timeline and status in the last located order
| Date | Procedural event |
|---|---|
| January 30, 2024 | The New York Attorney General filed suit against Citibank, N.A. in federal court. |
| January 21, 2025 | The court let the core EFTA claim proceed, finding that EFTA could apply to a fraudulent payment order debited from a consumer account in connection with a wire transfer. It dismissed the case in other respects. |
| April 22, 2025 | The court certified the EFTA question for interlocutory appeal and stayed the action pending appeal. |
The latest procedural source available for this article is the April 22, 2025 order. It establishes that the case was stayed pending appeal on that date, but does not verify a later appellate decision or docket status. Read the OAG’s announcement about the appeal.
What New York is asking for
The OAG seeks an order stopping the practices it calls deceptive, restitution for victims allegedly denied reimbursement over the previous six years, penalties, and disgorgement. These are remedies requested by the state, not money or other relief the court has awarded. The OAG’s announcement describes the requested relief.
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The OAG’s January 2024 announcement directs consumers who lost money to scammers accessing online or mobile banking to report their experience to its Consumer Frauds Bureau. Contact the New York OAG Consumer Frauds Bureau. Reporting an experience is not a determination that a particular person qualifies for reimbursement; the lawsuit’s requested remedies do not themselves decide an individual claim.
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