On Jan. 12, 2015, a message from a secure computer terminal at Banco del Austro (BDA) in Ecuador instructed San Francisco-based Wells Fargo to transfer money to bank accounts in Hong Kong.
Wells Fargo complied. Over 10 days, Wells approved at least 12 transfers of BDA funds over the secure SWIFT system.
The SWIFT network — which allows banks to process billions of dollars in transfers each day — is considered the backbone of international banking.