The stunning, rapid collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), fueled in its final days by droves of panicked depositors seeking funds, likely added to the chaos within the bank and ratcheted up the risk of fraud, according to legal experts.

Troubled financial institutions are frequent targets for fraudsters looking for gaps in normal due diligence procedures to exploit, said Michael Dailey, partner at Dinsmore & Shohl and co-chair of the law firm’s commercial finance and banking practice group.

“No doubt about it: Any time some crisis hits, whether in business or from a hurricane that runs through, some of the first folks that crawl out of the wreckage are the scam artists,” said Dailey.