Wise Account Closed, Refund Delayed , Advice Needed

[Damian2]

Hello everyone,
I have a UK Limited company with a nominee director, which I use‌ for legitimate online activities. I opened a Wise business account under the director’s name and‍ documents. A few months ago, Wise closed the account without warning, likely because other LTDs⁠ sharing the same director were flagged (unrelated to me).
I appealed, but the appeal was⁤ rejected. However, Wise allowed me to provide a different bank account (in someone else’s name)⁣ for the remaining funds. They keep saying due diligence checks are still in progress, but⁢ the delay is getting long, and I'm unsure when the refund will arrive.
Has anyone︀ faced a similar issue with Wise? How long did it take to resolve? Any suggestions︁ would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[hamza80]

Hi,

Yes, this is well known by Wise.

They will refund you to the bank‌ account you provide.

They hold the funds for 30 or 60 days in case a‍ dispute is requested on your account.

 

[JackofAllTrades]

If goes past 60 and it is a signifacant sum, have a lawyer tag them‌ with a letter.

 

[Damian2]

At the moment, I’ve been waiting for about four months. Every time I reach out,‌ they respond that the funds will be returned, but the due diligence checks are still‍ ongoing.

 

[JackofAllTrades]

You need a lawyer to call their bluff. This usually achieves the desired result. I‌ had a large sum of BTC stuck in bogus AML verfication and a few emails‍ from the aggressive lawyer did the trick.

 

[aage]

How much money are we talking about ?

 

[Damian2]

15k GBP approx.

 

[W Fish]

If it is four months and you have reminded them and got responses (so they‌ have not just "forgotten" it), then there is an investigation going on.
Not by Wise,‍ buy the FIU or police.
Wise (or any other bank or emi) can not do⁠ anything about it. They are not allowed to tell you why or for how long⁤ the money is held.
Have they asked you about SOF? If not, then you are⁣ probably not the subject of the investigation.

No lawyer will help. People talking about banks⁢ being greedy and wanting to seal your funds shoud read the AML&CTF legistlation.

 

[Damian2]

They have never asked me anything regarding the Source of Funds (SOF). My activity was‌ just a simple e-commerce business.

From what I understand, the issue arose because a company,whose‍ nominee director was the same person who opened my account,engaged in some improper activities. As⁠ a result, they closed all accounts where that person was listed.

So, I suppose all⁤ I can do is wait and occasionally send an email to check for updates? I⁣ just hope this won't take years...

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Wise remains the best crypto sponsor.
Remember: any amount of fiat money deposited in any‌ bank is not safe. Only keep a balance that you can afford to lose.

 

[W Fish]

Very probable.
In other⁠ words you used a танкист to open your account. No wonder it ended like this.⁤ 😉

yep.

 

[JackofAllTrades]

You have done nothing wrong, this is how EMIs steal money.

 

[JackofAllTrades]

What the EMI will do is eventually demand you account for every dollar to‍ their satisfaction which will never be met. Remember, they have no proof your funds are⁠ tainted. They are the ones committing theft of funds. Coinbase, Changelly, and others in the⁤ crypto world play the same game. PayPal used to do this as well when they⁣ were first starting out and needed float. As for those singing Wise's praises, they are⁢ wrong, I closed my Wise account after they kept demanding DD every time I used︀ the account.

 

[ShillGates]

i thi8nk you have⁢ to choose your words somewhat differently. IT was not your activities it was the activities︀ of the director and the company. If that director is in hot water in unrelated︁ dealings, you can kiss your 15k gbp goodbye - you are not entitled to it.︂ The only thing you can do is to have a contact with your real company︃ and issue a demand for money to the company with the dead wise accounbt, then︄ ask the court for a winding up order lol and you appoint a liquidator, but︅ thatll all cost 10k gbp

so move on, dont think you will be seeing this︆ unless the unrelated dealings are not severe, but ........

 

[JackofAllTrades]

Wise should close the account and return the funds - on what︂ theory would they be able to retain funds with no third party hold on them?︃

 

[W Fish]

While you are right is Wise just the messenger here. The⁠ real culprit is the EU legistlation.
It is going to get worse...

 

[ShillGates]

amld6. The account gets frozen for whatever reason. The the FIU will extend‍ it indefinitely until one day they will just ask for a forfeiture order, ie collect⁠ the money

 

[JackofAllTrades]

There is no FIU here just the EMI as far⁠ as I can tell. The EMI seems to be freezing on its own initiative based⁤ on OP's description.

 

[ShillGates]

you would not know if there is the fiu involved at all. This is the‌ whole purpose. Revolut aint moving because they either do not want to or can not.‍ You dont know till you start issuing proceedings. Normally the wait time is 30 days⁠ from the fiu after revolut issued a sar to the fiu. No response means good⁤ to go and revolut is not liable. Unfortunately banks dont care and keep it for⁣ longer than that in case fiu changes their mind as without a response revolut would⁢ be liable if they do pay out money. However, wise closing an account will have︀ 99.99% sureity of having raised a sar - since Wise wants the insurance policy to︁ be NOT liable in case they hand the money back. (bank raises a sar -︂ not liable for loss to government - if banks do not raise sar and government︃ comes knocking , bank is on the hook - result is - raise sars for︄ all customers as blanket procedure)

FIU sar report and forfeiture of monies is all a︅ civil procedure and evidence burden is as such very low. Simply the government saying, that︆ money is dirty is good enough without having proof, since most "criminals" will not defend︇ (or anything under 25k will not be defended anyway as it will cost more in︈ lawyers).

Once the money is seized, half goes to local enforcement ie local police, the︉ other half to central overnment to hire more money laundering officers. And the original account︊ holder is not a criminal as the whole money grabbing ecercise was civil.

Losing your︋ money without being trialed as a criminal is a nice invention by the EU to︌ raise more funds and actually make some money out of the sar reports, as before︍ 99.99% went unanswered - now its a revenue game for the governments to reduce deficits......︎

The op mentioned it has been 4 months, therefore wise should give the money back️ to the account holder, if not by now the government should have contacted the account‌ holder and served them with a notice to claim the money technically.

 

[JackofAllTrades]

Exactly correct, Wise is holding funds it is not entitled to as is‍ almost always the case.