Court: Bank supervisor not to blame for $295M transfer

WIESBADEN, Germany, June 11 (UPI) -- A German court sided with a bank supervisor who was fired for failing to double check on a $295 million transfer committed by a sleeping employee.

The Hesse labor court ruled the 48-year-old woman was unfairly fired for failing to catch the faulty transaction -- which resulted from an employee falling asleep on a keyboard and accidentally creating a transfer for 222,222,222.22 euros -- about $295 million, the British newspaper The Independent reported Tuesday.

The transfer was only supposed to be for $85.24.

The judges said the woman had only a few seconds to check each transaction for the day and had already checked 812 transactions when she failed to catch the massive error.

The panel said they could find no malicious intent on the part of the supervisor and they ruled she should have been warned rather than fired.

The judges ordered the bank to reinstate the supervisor in her previous position.

The faulty transaction had been noticed by an employee later in the day and was corrected before any money was actually transferred.