Chemical firm Orion S.A., a producer of carbon black, says it has lost approximately US$60 million through “multiple fraudulently induced outbound wire transfers to accounts controlled by unknown third parties.”
The company lost the money after an employee was duped into making several wire transfers to cybercriminals, it says.
The Texas-based company, previously known as Orion Engineered Carbons S.A., has confirmed cooperation with law enforcement and intends to employ all legal avenues to recover the lost funds, including potential insurance claims. As of now, the company says it has not detected any further fraudulent activities or unauthorised data access. The ongoing internal investigation aims to understand the full impact on Orion’s internal controls and operations, which reportedly remain unaffected by the incident.
The 8K report the company filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently says that the “a Company employee, who is not a Named Executive Officer, was the target” of this criminal scheme and responsible for making the fraudulent wire transfers.
“As a result of this incident, and if no further recoveries of transferred funds occur, the Company expects to record a one-time pre-tax charge of approximately US$60 million for the unrecovered fraudulent wire transfers,” according to Orion.
“The Company has cooperated, and will continue to cooperate, with law enforcement as appropriate, and intends to pursue recovery of these funds through all legally available means, including potentially available insurance coverage.”
“To date, the Company has not found any evidence of additional fraudulent activity and currently does not believe the incident resulted in any unauthorised access to data or systems maintained by the Company,” the filing further says.
“However, the Company’s investigation into the incident and its impacts on the Company, including its internal controls, remains ongoing. The business and operations were not affected.”
A global company, Orion has innovation centres on three continents and 14 plants worldwide.