What happened
In March 2018 fraudsters impersonating the chief executive of French film company Pathé's parent persuaded the Dutch branch's leadership to make a series of payments totaling more than €19 million for a purported acquisition of a Dubai-based company. Branch director Dertje Meijer and CFO Edwin Slutter were both dismissed after the loss surfaced. An external investigation cleared them of involvement, and Slutter later won partial relief in a wrongful-termination suit.
How the deception worked
The attackers opened with a low-key question about a KPMG contact to establish a plausible thread, then escalated to a confidential acquisition of a Dubai entity, insisting that all communication run through a spoofed personal address 'as a security measure' for sensitive transactions. When the CFO asked for verification, the fraudsters produced a forged authorization email from the Pathé France manager complete with copied signatures and an invoice from the supposed Dubai target. The CFO checked the signatures, which matched, and payments proceeded from several sources including the group cash pool. Small inconsistencies in the correspondence were noticed but not escalated until headquarters queried the withdrawals.
AI involvement · No AI reported
No AI or synthetic media reported.
The control that would have caught it· our reading, not a claim from the sources
Document-based verification is not verification when the attacker supplies the documents; approval for cross-border deal payments must be confirmed by voice with named group officers on known numbers.
Sources (1)
This entry summarises public reporting. It is not a legal finding, and details can change as investigations conclude. Found an error? Send a correction.