Bofa Fraud “team” Helps Scammer Steal $7k From Husband

Location: SF Bay Area, CA. Early this month my husband looked at his personal BofA checking account through their app when he noticed that the bank was holding two separate charges for $3,500. As he received no notice of the hold, or what it was for, he immediately called the bank since his account was now negative ~$5000. The bank said it was for two Zelle payments made over a year ago. The guy who made the payments apparently filed a fraud claim, alleging that his “phone was stolen” and never made the Zelle transactions. Despite this guy being known to my husband (a former friend) and making several Zelle payments to my husband before and after these two specific charges (and as far as I’m aware not a BofA customer), BofA immediately and without notice put a hold on the transactions. My husband was told that an internal “team” was investigating the matter and he could submit evidence of his transactions with the guy, including the two specific transactions that show this person was aware of the Zelle payments. My husband submitted the screen shots of his interactions, but never received any confirmation from the bank that they were received or what to expect next. Two days ago (June 19, and more than 10 business days after filing his counter-fraud claim), my husband checked his account to find that the transactions were no longer on hold, but “processing”. Again we received no notice from the bank, so we called the fraud department to get an update on the situation. We were told that BofA’s internal investigative team determined that the other guys’ claim was “credible”, and so they credited him the $7k! When we asked the BofA agent if it was BofA’s policy to put customers’ accounts on hold without notice or recourse, he rudely responded “That’s not what I said. Take it up with a civil court.”

This guy has done this same scam to at least one other person my husband knows. He calls the bank and alleges that Zelle payments he made over a year ago were unauthorized and BofA’s internal team sides with him!

Given the info shared here, what would be the best way to try and recover my husband’s funds? Thanks in advance for any suggestions ????????