In the early morning hours of a Thursday in January, more than $17 million disappeared from the escrow account of prominent Palm Beach real-estate law firm Rabideau Klein, according to a new lawsuit. The firm says it clawed back roughly $10.7 million, but about $6.5 million is still missing. To recover the balance, Rabideau Klein has sued First Horizon Bank, alleging a cascade of oversight and security failures that let an unknown intruder move money out of the account in rapid-fire succession.
How the Suit Says the Money Was Taken
According to The Real Deal, the complaint claims a “threat actor” broke into the firm’s online banking and executed 13 unauthorized wire transfers. The intruder is alleged to have changed passwords, created a new user ID, disabled existing user accounts and even called the bank’s service line to request a replacement RSA security token.
The filing includes a recording of that service call, in which the caller audibly struggles to recite the account number, saying, “okay, uh, their account number, um, one moment, that would be . . .,” a detail the firm cites as part of its internal investigation into what happened.
Bank Scale and Why It Matters
First Horizon is a regional bank with roughly $83.9 billion in assets, according to SEC filings. With that footprint, the bank handles extensive private-client and escrow relationships across Florida and the broader Southeast, so any breakdown in controls can have outsized consequences for high-dollar real-estate transactions.
What Rabideau Klein Wants in Court…