New York (CNN Business) – Citigroup loses $ 504 million in court battle on Tuesday, wrongly transferred to Revlon lenders In August. But don’t be under the illusion that you can keep some money if you accidentally transfer it to your bank account.

A federal judge has ruled that Citi’s wire transfers, which act as Revlon’s credit officer, are “final and complete transactions, not subject to cancellation”. However, in most cases this will not happen if the electronic transfers are received by mistake. In fact, you may have to repay the money or face criminal charges.

This is due to a common legal principle called “unfair enrichment”, which usually requires the recipient to return the money to the sender. A Pennsylvania couple faced worse charges in 2019 after accidentally depositing $ 120,000 in their account.

But there is an exception used in the case of Citigroup under New York law. The law was passed in 1991 by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that a lender could hold funds if a third party mistakenly sent money to the lender.

That exception, called the value settlement rule, allows the recipient to accidentally transfer funds to them if the erroneously converted money is not claimed, and the valid debtor is compensated, and the recipient is unaware that the money was made in error.

This is exactly what Revlon’s creditors thought.

“Based on whether the defendants (or, more accurately, their customers) received a constructive notice of Citibank’s error at the time of the August 11 wire transfers,” U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman said in his conclusion. . “Based on the credible testimony and documentary record of the defendants’ staff, the court concludes that this is not the case.”

Revlon lenders said they believe Citibank transfers are prepayments for outstanding debt, which should not be settled until 2023.

The court therefore ruled that it was reasonable for Revlon’s creditors to believe that the payments had not been made in error.

“Citibank is one of the most sophisticated financial institutions in the world. Therefore, respondents and their clients can assume that the bank has effective internal controls to prevent major errors – and can be considered,” the results say.

Citigroup said it would like to appeal the decision.