Was Bank Of America Negligent In Allowing Man To Embezzle Public Funds?

An interesting embezzlement case involving the city of Seattle and Bank of America is described in this MYNorthwest.com article. Seattle might have grounds for civil action against the bank:

Satterberg said Phan was able to open up a Bank of America account under his own name and "The City of Sea." More than 70 checks made payable to the City of Seattle or to Seattle Public Utilities were deposited into the account totaling $1,090,762.16.

It's surprising that Bank of America didn't catch that these checks weren't payable to the owner of the account. However, I wonder how carefully any banks verify the "Pay to the order of" name when you deposit checks.