A Bucks County real estate law firm has sued Bank of America for failing to cancel a wire transfer made to China after the firm's account was infiltrated by hackers.

Warminster-based O'Neill Bragg & Staffin and its principals filed a lawsuit in federal court in Philadelphia against Bank of America, claiming the bank was responsible for the damage done after hackers used deceptive emails to dupe a member of the firm into transferring more than a half-million dollars to the Bank of China.

The hacker posed as a partner of the firm, Gary Bragg, according to the complaint, and emails involved a loan transaction of which the hacker seemed to have intimate knowledge.

In the correspondence, the hacker addressed partner Alvin Staffin by his nickname, Mel, making the ruse even more convincing, and asked for a $580,000 transfer from the firm's IOLTA sub-account to the Bank of China.

Bank of America made the transfer at Staffin's request. After the transfer was made, Staffin called Bragg to discuss it, finding out only then that Bragg had no knowledge of the $580,000 request.

“Staffin realized OBS had been victimized by a computer hacker, and immediately notified defendant bank of the fraud,” the complaint said.

Staffin spoke to a Bank of America wire transfer specialist named Jason, who did not give a last name, and requested that the transfer be stopped. Jason said the bank was powerless to do anything until the funds had reached China.

The firm's client's account had insufficient funds to cover the transfer, only $1,900, according to the complaint. However, Bank of America drew from the firm's other IOLTA sub-accounts belonging to other clients to cover the fraudulent transfer, the plaintiffs claimed.

Efforts to recall the wire transfer proved insufficient, according to the complaint, and, at the suggestion of the FBI, the firm contacted the Hong Kong police to report a cybercrime. A Hong Kong court eventually froze the hacker's accounts.

However, to date, the firm has recovered only $58,000, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs alleged that Bank of America failed to stop the transfer despite its legal duty to do so, and demanded that the bank repay the $580,000 that was drawn from the other IOLTA accounts.

“Defendant's refusal to repay the $580,000 to plaintiff violates the terms of the deposit agreement and disclosures,” the complaint said. “Defendant's unauthorized and impermissible act in sweeping the IOLTA sub-accounts of other clients violates defendant bank's essential obligations as the holder of attorney trust funds.”

Counsel for the plaintiffs, Philip S. Rosenzweig of Silverang, Donohoe, Rosenzweig & Haltzman in St. Davids, did not respond to a request for comment. Bank of America also did not respond to a request for comment.