[update] I Wrote A Check To My Friend's New Company. They Cashed It With Their Chase Bank Account. Chase Flagged It As Suspicious, Closed Their Account And Are Refusing To Release Or Return The Money.

original

Location: NY

So I wanted to update for anyone in a similar situation, or just anyone who was invested in this story.

My friend literally had to call the bank almost every day, and kept getting "non answers" or even completely wrong answers.

Eventually they managed to find someone high enough up who was willing to actually tell them what the real issue was. Apparently something in their company setup (registration? I'm not sure, I don't understand these things. Setting up a new company as an LLC) flaged their company as suspicious.

Apparently it's not something wrong or illegal, just something in the structure that Chase Bank identifies as being more common in fraudulent companies, so it already put them on a "suspicious" list, and my check was just the last nail in the coffin.

They also confirmed that it's bank policy to never actually say the real reason an account was flagged for fraud, so that fraudsters can't learn how to not get caught next time. It makes some sort of sense, but also means they intentionally, for several weeks, made us jump through hoop they knew won't solve the issue. (Intentionally - not the actual representatives, they just relay the data from the computer. The computer maybe had wrong data displayed? I don't know)

My friend contacted the lawyer that set up her company, they changed whatever part of the structure Chase identified as suspicious.

Chase still didn't want to unblock their account, but after a few more days of arguing, they finally relented and the money was released.

It's still frustrating because of not for one (high up) employee willing to go against company policy - I don't know if this could have been solved.

Anyway, this was months ago by now. I wanted to wait until my friend actually bought back my stake in the company so that I could definitively say this wasn't a scam (as people warned me about. They were wrong, but the warning was on point)

So I'm happy to say I just got all the investment money back a couple of weeks ago, and it's not completely cleared! I got a nice interest of 1% ($500) per month, and they also paid for half the plane ticket to the US (and I will expense the other half from my profits).

All in all, it was an adventure and I now have (one more) story about how crazy American bureaucracy is (they can't verify my identity in person, only over the phone??), in addition to my crazy IRS stories and my crazy medical insurance stories.

With all that, and all that's happening in the US right now, I'm even more sure my decision to leave the US was a good one.

I often say that Americans living in America don't know how bad they have it. Even those who think they know, who know that the healthcare system or IRS or whatever needs to be fixed, they just think about less denial of claims or free tax filling software or stuff like that... They just don't understand how well it works in other countries.

Just as an example: When I had trouble with the IRS in America - I made an appointment to talk to an actual agent in the IRS offices in my state. They looked at the data and my file and said literally "I see where someone on our end made a mistake, putting the date you filled in the wrong place in the system. You were actually not late and should not pay this fine. I can't fix that, you'll need to write a letter to file an appeal." (The appeal BTW was returned with "it's our policy to allow every tax filing person once in their lifetime an exemption from a fine, so we're using this exemption and waving your fine. You're welcome", and I'm like "what? But... I should've have been fined at all! Did you even read my letter? Did you even check my file??")

On the other hand, here when I had tax issues and went to the tax place (no need for an appointment) - the agent literally picked up the phone on her desk and called my company's HR number in front of me, yelled at them for filling up my form wrong, dictated to them how it should be filled, and had them fax it to her right then and there. Solving my issue just like that.

Ok sorry about the tangent. This whole Chase Bank ordeal was just so dystopian, it really got me agitated. Honestly, I'm kind of afraid to use my money now...