The Norwegian offshore oil and gas regulator Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has managed to recover the money lost in a payment fraud last year.
NPD was in November of last year the target of a payment fraud amounting to 17.6 million kroner, or around $1,9 million.
"Most of these funds, around NOK 17 million, have now been returned to the Directorate," the NPD said this week.
"We are obviously very pleased that most of the funds fraudulently taken from us have been returned," says Assistant director Torhild S. Nilsen.
The money has been returned to the NPD thanks to good efforts on the part of the DnB bank, which secured return of the funds from a foreign bank, the oil and gas regulator said.
After the fraud, the regulator explained, the NPD sought assistance from PwC, which has expertise in investigating these types of cases.
"They have recommended actions that the NPD can take to further improve payment routines. Improvements are now being introduced in line with these recommendations. There are no indications of data breaches in the NPD’s systems, or that our data security has failed," NPD said.
"While we did indeed believe that our payment routines were good before this happened, this proves that anyone can be vulnerable to this type of advanced crime."
"We, therefore, believe that openness around such a case of fraud is important. Perhaps in this way we can contribute to help others learn, and thus avoid being swindled," says Torhild S. Nilsen.