Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Business Email Compromise Lawyers in Houston, Texas

An email arrives that looks like it’s from the CEO, from the title company handling a closing, or from a vendor your company has worked with for years. The instructions inside look routine, so an employee follows them and sends the wire. It isn’t until hours or even days later that someone realizes the email is fraudulent. By then, the money is already gone.

Business email compromise is one of the most financially damaging cybercrime categories targeting businesses, behind only investment fraud in total reported losses. These attacks are targeted and patient, and they succeed because they look exactly like the real thing. Once the fraud is discovered, the window for action is measured in hours, not days.

Berg PC represents businesses, CFOs, general counsel, and executives who have been hit by BEC attacks. We understand how stolen funds move through the crypto ecosystem once they leave a bank account, and we act on that knowledge immediately. If the fraud just happened, call us today.

What Is Business Email Compromise?

BEC is fraud where attackers use a compromised or spoofed email account to trick a business into wiring money to a fraudulent destination. The attacks are typically researched in advance: the perpetrators study the company, learn who controls its wire transfers, and then impersonate someone that employee already trusts, whether that’s a CEO, a vendor, a law firm, or an escrow agent. There’s no malware and no suspicious link involved, only an email that looks legitimate from an address that looks close enough to real.

Once the wire goes out, the money typically lands in a domestic account for a short time before it’s wired internationally and converted into cryptocurrency, sometimes within hours. That domestic account is usually controlled by a money mule, someone who may not even realize they’re part of the scheme. By the time anyone recognizes what happened, the funds have already moved several times.

Common Types of Business Email Compromise

These are the scenarios that come up most often in the cases we handle.

CEO or executive impersonation. The attacker spoofs the CEO’s email and instructs a financial officer to wire funds for a confidential acquisition or an urgent vendor payment. The urgency and the request for secrecy aren’t incidental. They’re designed to bypass the company’s normal approval process.
Vendor payment diversion. The attacker intercepts or spoofs a legitimate vendor’s email and redirects a scheduled payment to a new fraudulent account. The timing often coincides with a real invoice.
Real estate and escrow fraud. The attacker monitors a real estate transaction and impersonates the title company or closing attorney to redirect the buyer’s wire. These losses can run from the hundreds of thousands into the millions on a single transaction.
Law firm impersonation. The attacker poses as counsel handling a transaction or settlement and directs payment to a fraudulent trust account.
Payroll diversion. The attacker compromises an HR or payroll system to redirect employee direct deposits.

The Legal Options You Have

Speed determines what’s possible in BEC recovery. Some of these options are only available within the first hours of the wire going out, while others remain available for years.

Wire Recall in the First Hours

Contact your bank immediately and ask for the wire or fraud recall team specifically, not general customer service. Many banks have a narrow window, sometimes just a few hours for international wires, to recall a fraudulent transfer before it settles, and you should also ask the bank to issue a Hold Harmless Letter or Letter of Indemnity. At the same time, file a report at ic3.gov. The FBI’s Recovery Asset Team can route qualifying reports into the Financial Fraud Kill Chain, a process that works through banking and law enforcement contacts to freeze funds before they scatter into other accounts. These are the fastest options available, and every hour of delay narrows them.

Blockchain Tracing and Emergency Wallet Freezes

Once BEC proceeds are converted to cryptocurrency, they become traceable on the blockchain. Berg PC’s team includes former intelligence professionals with the tools and expertise to follow stolen funds across wallets and exchanges. Where funds can be located, we move for emergency court orders and work directly with exchanges to freeze assets. This has to happen quickly, before the funds are converted again or dispersed further.

Claims Against Your Bank

Whether your bank bears responsibility for processing a fraudulent payment order comes down to a specific legal framework, not a general sense of fairness. Business wire transfers are governed by Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code rather than the consumer protections that apply to a personal account. Under Article 4A, a bank can generally avoid liability for an unauthorized wire if it followed a security procedure the customer had agreed to, and that procedure was commercially reasonable. Courts don’t treat that standard as automatic. They weigh whether the procedure fit that specific customer and whether a safer alternative had been offered and turned down. A federal appeals court found one bank’s wire security commercially unreasonable after fraud moved more than half a million dollars out of a construction company’s account, and a receiving bank can carry its own exposure if it had actual knowledge that a wire’s name and account number didn’t match. These claims are fact-intensive and contested by every bank that faces one. We assess them in every significant BEC engagement.

Civil Litigation Against Identifiable Actors

Where domestic money mules or other identifiable participants can be located, civil fraud and conversion claims are available against them directly. Even when the primary perpetrators are overseas, U.S. courts can sometimes reach the exchanges or institutions that held the converted proceeds. If a mule has already moved the money into a further account, Texas’s fraudulent transfer statute can let a court void that follow-on transfer and pull the funds back into reach. Civil litigation tools like subpoenas and document requests also build the evidentiary record that supports both recovery and any parallel law enforcement action.

Insurance Coverage Disputes

Some commercial crime and cyber policies cover BEC losses. Many insurers dispute coverage, arguing the wire transfer was authorized by the policyholder’s own employee. If you’re in a coverage dispute with your insurer over a BEC loss, we can evaluate it as a separate litigation matter.

Deadlines You Shouldn’t Rely On

The deadlines that matter most in a BEC matter often come from your bank’s wire recall window and your insurance policy’s notice provision, both of which can close within days, well before any Texas statute of limitations comes into play. Once those short windows pass, the claims that remain, such as a UCC Article 4A claim against a bank or a fraudulent transfer claim against a mule account, typically fall under Texas’s four-year statute of limitations for fraud or two-year statute for negligence, depending on the theory.

Why Business Email Compromise Requires a Different Kind of Firm

Most commercial litigators have never traced stolen funds through a cryptocurrency exchange, and most crypto lawyers have never tried a commercial case to verdict. BEC matters typically require both skill sets at once, which is a niche combination.

Geoff Berg has tried complex commercial disputes for more than 30 years, and he’s also one of the country’s leading litigators in cryptocurrency fraud. He has followed stolen funds across blockchains and obtained emergency wallet freezes, recovering assets for clients who were told their money was already gone. Best Lawyers in America® has recognized him in Commercial Litigation for ten consecutive years.

We prepare every case for trial from day one. That posture matters even in BEC cases that ultimately settle, because what a case settles for depends on what the other side believes you’re actually willing to do.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should we do in the first hours after discovering BEC fraud?

Call your bank and request a wire recall. Ask specifically for their fraud or wire recall team, not general customer service. File at ic3.gov and request the Financial Fraud Kill Chain if within 72 hours of the wire. Preserve everything: the fraudulent email with full headers, wire instructions, communications with the impersonated party, and system logs. Contact Berg PC. The tracing and freeze window is short.

Can we sue our bank?

It depends on the facts. The question turns on what security procedures the bank had in place and whether it ignored red flags along the way. These claims are always contested, but they’re worth evaluating in any significant BEC loss, and we’ll give you a direct answer either way.

The attackers are overseas. Is there any realistic path forward?

Often yes. The overseas perpetrators are rarely the only actors involved. Domestic money mules and the U.S.-based exchanges or financial institutions that touched the funds may all be reachable in U.S. courts, even when the people who orchestrated the scheme are not. We assess the realistic options in every case and put our resources where recovery is actually possible.

What about our cyber insurance?

Review the policy language around “funds transfer fraud” and “social engineering.” Coverage varies significantly by policy, and insurers frequently dispute BEC claims on the grounds that your employee authorized the transfer. If coverage is being disputed, it may be worth appealing.

What does it cost to bring a BEC claim?

That depends on which claim we’re pursuing. Emergency tracing and freeze work is often billed differently than a longer bank or insurance dispute, and some matters can be structured on contingency once we understand the facts. We’ll walk through fee options with you during the initial review, which carries no charge.

Contact a Business Email Compromise Attorney in Houston, Texas

Berg PC is committed to fighting business email compromise (BEC) cybercrimes and protecting your digital assets.

Should the firm take on your case, Geoff Berg and our lawyers will do everything they can to reclaim what is rightfully yours.

We offer initial consultations at no charge.

Please contact us for a preliminary evaluation. After reviewing your case diligently, we will be in touch with next steps.