Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Jul 14, 2025

Citi Bank sent $900 million to customers by mistake. Half of them refuse to give it back.

Citi Bank sent $900 million to customers by mistake. Half of them refuse to give it back.

Bank now goes to trial to get rest back from Revlon creditors. Citibank has recovered only about $400 million in legal dispute.

A trial over Citigroup Inc.’s efforts to recover more than $500 million it mistakenly sent to Revlon Inc. lenders got underway on Wednesday morning after a Citi official suggested that the creditors blew the bank off when it alerted them to the error. 

A contractor in India for Citigroup Inc.’s Citibank retail business, Raj had been the “checker” on a periodic interest payment to a group of Revlon Inc. creditors, with the bank acting as administrative agent on the loan. Suddenly he realized that Citi had instead sent some of those creditors the full remaining principal.


“Bad news,” his supervisor told the head of North American loan operations by chat on Aug. 12. It was, in fact, $900 million of bad news.

Raj will testify this week by videoconference in federal court in Manhattan as Citibank goes to trial to recover the more than $500 million it still hasn’t gotten back from the defendants, asset managers including Brigade Capital Management, HPS Investment Partners and Symphony Asset Management. Unless there’s a last-minute settlement, the trial -- over one of the biggest banking errors in recent memory -- will be closely watched on Wall Street, and its outcome could have a significant impact on the industry.

Representatives for Brigade and Symphony declined to comment on the case. A representative for HPS didn’t immediately provide comment outside of business hours.

‘Shot Across the Bow’

Citibank argues that because the funds were its own, not Revlon’s, and were transferred in error, they must be returned. To Revlon creditors already locked in a bitter fight with the cosmetics giant over its restructuring earlier in the year, the money satisfied a debt, and they should be allowed to keep it.


Citibank has “a pretty strong case,” said Eric Talley, a professor of corporate law at Columbia Law School, but it’s “not so crystal clear that it doesn’t involve a little bit of risk.” The outcome will likely hinge on the creditors’ contention that they got what they were entitled to, he said.

If they prevail, Talley said, it could be “a shot across the bow” of the big commercial banks, signaling that they won’t be able to get courts “to ride to the rescue to salvage an error that you committed because of poor internal controls.”

Read More: Revlon to Avoid Bankruptcy Filing Upon Completing Debt Deal

Meanwhile Citi, which has had to explain the embarrassing error to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve, already has “a little bit of a black eye,” Talley said. Even if the bank wins, he said, “it would be an overshoot for Citibank to pop the champagne corks and say we’re vindicated after all.”

Citigroup said it would do better.

“As previously stated, we take pride in the role that we play as a global leader in financial services and recognize that an operational error of this nature is unacceptable,” the company said in a statement. “We look forward to presenting our case in court.”

‘Mistakes Do Happen’

Financial services trade groups have stuck up for Citibank in court filings, arguing that a win for the creditors would expose banks that facilitate wire transfers and serve as administrative agents to unnecessary risk. The Loan Syndications and Trading Association, whose more than 500 members include Citi as well as most of the creditors involved in the case, said that “mistakes do happen” and that participants routinely return incorrect payments, as many of the Revlon creditors have.

A ruling for the defendants would “undermine the smooth functioning of syndicated lending” and promote “the kind of non-cooperative opportunistic behavior that destabilizes any market dependent on trust and transparency,” the group said.


At the trial, which begins Wednesday, Citibank plans to present testimony from witnesses like Raj who can explain the processing errors that led to the payments, as well as internal communications showing that Revlon intended only to have the bank send interest. Revlon was allowed to pay the loans off early only if it notified the creditors three days in advance, Citi argues in court filings, and the balance wasn’t set to mature for another three years.

In addition, the bank says, a lawsuit the creditors filed just one day after the transfers, demanding that Revlon accelerate payment of the debt, shows they knew they weren’t entitled to the early full payment Citibank sent on Aug. 11. And the creditors alleged in their suit that Revlon was insolvent, meaning they knew it didn’t have the money to make the payments, Citi argues.

“They should at least have suspected a mistake when they received payments totaling the amount of principal outstanding,” the bank contends.

Perelman’s Record

The defendants argue that they accepted the money in good faith and didn’t receive notice of the error until almost 20 hours after the transfers were completed. They say they had ample reason to believe Revlon intended to pay off the loan. For instance, if Revlon hadn’t repaid the debt or repurchased enough of it, the company probably would have defaulted and “almost certainly” would have filed for bankruptcy, they argue.

They note that Revlon paid off debt at face value at least five times in connection with the restructuring in May and twice more over the summer. They also note that Revlon gave creditors that consented to the restructuring the right to force the company to buy back its loans under the amended credit agreement. As a result, once they received the wire transfers, they considered the loans paid off.

“It was especially unlikely that any term lender would have concluded that the August 11 transfer was a mistake given the recent history between the parties,” they argue.

Referring to Ronald Perelman, the billionaire whose holding company MacAndrews & Forbes owns more than 80% of Revlon, they say “it is simply nonsense to suppose that sophisticated lenders, familiar with Mr. Perelman’s track record, would have doubted his ability to pay down the term loans, just as he had found ways to pay other Revlon debt before.”


The case is Citibank NA v. Brigade Capital Management, 20-cv-6539, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
President Trump Visits Flood-Ravaged Texas, Praises Community Strength and First Responders
From Mystery to Meltdown, Crisis Within the Trump Administration: Epstein Files Ignite A Deepening Rift at the Highest Levels of Government Reveals Chaos, Leaks, and Growing MAGA Backlash
Trump Slams Putin Over War Death Toll, Teases Major Russia Announcement
Reparations argument crushed
Rainmaker CEO Says Cloud Seeding Paused Before Deadly Texas Floods
A 92-year-old woman, who felt she doesn't belong in a nursing home, escaped the death-camp by climbing a gate nearly 8 ft tall
French Journalist Acquitted in Controversial Case Involving Brigitte Macron
Elon Musk’s xAI Targets $200 Billion Valuation in New Fundraising Round
Kraft Heinz Considers Splitting Off Grocery Division Amid Strategic Review
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
EU Proposes New Tax on Large Companies to Boost Budget
Trump Imposes 35% Tariffs on Canadian Imports Amid Trade Tensions
Junior Doctors in the UK Prepare for Five-Day Strike Over Pay Disputes
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Biden’s Doctor Pleads the Fifth to Avoid Self-Incrimination on President’s Medical Fitness
Grok Chatbot Faces International Backlash for Antisemitic Content
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
×