Bank account frozen for 10 years

[Faithsautoworks]

In 2005 my business account was frozen by Wachovia due to reports of fraud. A licensed florida contractor was allowing me to use his name and license number to secure roofing contracts. My account had his company name so,that I could manage the money and I was to give him,10 Percent of gross contract. Well using someone's name and license is,not permitted without registering everything with the state. I did not know that.
Well when it was discovered he claimed he did not know me and that I was conducting fraud. At that point I had to cease working on,all my contracts. The bank froze,my account. I proved that we did have an,agreement and had,proof of me paying him and also had blank permit applications with his signature. Well some customers jobs were left halt complete, some never started and some complete with custoner still owing final payment. It has been 10 years and i have never been charged with fraud nor have I had an suits brought against me .,
Wells Fargo says the money is still in the account appx $11,000 . it took 15 min for the supervisor of,the lady who was assigned my account to find the account.,he told me they were going,to have to look,for everything related to my account in the archives. It's been so,long my info is in the archives.
How,long can they hold my money? The statute of,limitations has long been up in the state of Florida for fraud,both criminally and civilly. Does,anyone have any recommendations short of hiring a lawyer who will probably want half of what I have ?
Thanks in advance

 

[CTU]

In 2005 my business account was frozen by Wachovia due to reports of fraud. A licensed florida contractor was allowing me to use his name and license number to secure roofing contracts. My account had his company name so,that I could manage the money and I was to give him,10 Percent of gross contract. Well using someone's name and license is,not permitted without registering everything with the state. I did not know that.
Well when it was discovered he claimed he did not know me and that I was conducting fraud. At that point I had to cease working on,all my contracts. The bank froze,my account. I proved that we did have an,agreement and had,proof of me paying him and also had blank permit applications with his signature. Well some customers jobs were left halt complete, some never started and some complete with custoner still owing final payment. It has been 10 years and i have never been charged with fraud nor have I had an suits brought against me .,
Wells Fargo says the money is still in the account appx $11,000 . it took 15 min for the supervisor of,the lady who was assigned my account to find the account.,he told me they were going,to have to look,for everything related to my account in the archives. It's been so,long my info is in the archives.
How,long can they hold my money? The statute of,limitations has long been up in the state of Florida for fraud,both criminally and civilly. Does,anyone have any recommendations short of hiring a lawyer who will probably want half of what I have ?
Thanks in advance

One of the most ironic screen-names I've ever seen ...

 

[Eekamouse]

In 2005 my business account was frozen by Wachovia due to reports of fraud. A licensed florida contractor was allowing me to use his name and license number to secure roofing contracts. My account had his company name so,that I could manage the money and I was to give him,10 Percent of gross contract. Well using someone's name and license is,not permitted without registering everything with the state. I did not know that.
Well when it was discovered he claimed he did not know me and that I was conducting fraud. At that point I had to cease working on,all my contracts. The bank froze,my account. I proved that we did have an,agreement and had,proof of me paying him and also had blank permit applications with his signature. Well some customers jobs were left halt complete, some never started and some complete with custoner still owing final payment. It has been 10 years and i have never been charged with fraud nor have I had an suits brought against me .,
Wells Fargo says the money is still in the account appx $11,000 . it took 15 min for the supervisor of,the lady who was assigned my account to find the account.,he told me they were going,to have to look,for everything related to my account in the archives. It's been so,long my info is in the archives.
How,long can they hold my money? The statute of,limitations has long been up in the state of Florida for fraud,both criminally and civilly. Does,anyone have any recommendations short of hiring a lawyer who will probably want half of what I have ?
Thanks in advance

So you were running your business without your own contractor's license? That's pretty shady, in and of itself. Was your own license revoked?

 

[Faithsautoworks]

I lived and worked in ga before meeting these two middle aged men who were apparently well accomplished. They went through the rigorous process of getting a florida contractors license and they knew what they were permitted to do and what they were not. I was young and didn't think they would allow me to represent them if that was not permitted by licensing agency. I did not know I was doing anything shady. Ignorance is no excuse but at this point I need to know do I have a right to my businesses money after 10 years of no charges or civil cases related to the account activity . thanks

 

[xylene]

I'm not sure why you believe that waiting many years allows you to reclaim these fraudulent funds.

You need to talk to a lawyer about this, and not just getting the money but abut the advisability of EVEN TRYING lest it re-expose you to liability for your actions.

I think you really need to think about how you can say "my businesses money" on an account in someone else's name

 

[Faithsautoworks]

If it was fraud I would have been prosecuted for fraud. The account is in mine and my businesses name. His business name was added to the account when we made our agreement that I would be an agent of his company. Everything I did was with the best of intentions . I had already completed about 20 jobs with all the customers pleased . this all got started by these guys who,knew better than to let anyone use there license because it was part of there study material for there exam. They tried throwing me under the bus to save there license by saying they didn't know me and that they never agreed to allow me to represent their company. After a couple years I just gave up on the money and then I forgot all about it until i went into wells Fargo to open an account and the banker informed me that the account was still showing and all the funds were still there. Yea I should have contacted the state to find out the regulations regarding contractor licenses before but like I said I was 25 and I didn't think these two successful guys would do anything that would not be on the up and up.
By them lying about me it shut down my whole operation. I had over 35k in checks due to me. I had 3 jobs' materials ordered that never got delivered nor never refunded . i had 20k invested in the venture. So I feel that the money should be released and if,anyone should suffer is the guys who had the lucense. They knew the laws and they were the reason that all the jobs were screwed up. They didn't have to lie and shut me down. I could have started letting them collect all the funds and they could have just paid me and kept their percentage. They were the reason for all this.

 

[xylene]

If it was fraud I would have been prosecuted for fraud. The account is in mine and my businesses name. His business name was added to the account when we made our agreement that I would be an agent of his company. Everything I did was with the best of intentions . I had already completed about 20 jobs with all the customers pleased . this all got started by these guys who,knew better than to let anyone use there license because it was part of there study material for there exam. They tried throwing me under the bus to save there license by saying they didn't know me and that they never agreed to allow me to represent their company. After a couple years I just gave up on the money and then I forgot all about it until i went into wells Fargo to open an account and the banker informed me that the account was still showing and all the funds were still there. Yea I should have contacted the state to find out the regulations regarding contractor licenses before but like I said I was 25 and I didn't think these two successful guys would do anything that would not be on the up and up.
By them lying about me it shut down my whole operation. I had over 35k in checks due to me. I had 3 jobs' materials ordered that never got delivered nor never refunded . i had 20k invested in the venture. So I feel that the money should be released and if,anyone should suffer is the guys who had the lucense. They knew the laws and they were the reason that all the jobs were screwed up. They didn't have to lie and shut me down. I could have started letting them collect all the funds and they could have just paid me and kept their percentage. They were the reason for all this.

I think you are mistaking what is 'just' with what is the law.

I'm not steering you wrong about talking to a lawyer.

 

[quincy]

... Wells Fargo says the money is still in the account appx $11,000 . it took 15 min for the supervisor of,the lady who was assigned my account to find the account.,he told me they were going,to have to look,for everything related to my account in the archives ...

Have you thought about waiting to hear what Wells Fargo discovers when they look into everything related to the frozen account? You have already waited eleven years. A few days longer probably will not change the status of funds being held.

I agree with xylene that you might benefit from speaking to an attorney, especially if you are worried about your connection to fraudulent transactions, but you could have the luxury of waiting to speak to the attorney until after you hear what Wells Fargo has to say about the $11,000.

 

[Zigner]

My account had his company name...

Why do you think it's "your" money? The money belongs to his company, not you.

 

[quincy]

Why do you think it's "your" money? The money belongs to his company, not you.

I am asking this only because I am not certain of the answer without research and I really don't feel like researching:

Isn't a bank (Wachovia in this case) supposed to turn over to the state any funds left abandoned in inactive/frozen/closed accounts after a certain period of time (the time of which I am assuming is less than 11 years)?

I am not sure to whom the $11,000 belongs at this point (the Florida company, the Georgia company, the former customers, someone else, the state ...) but I am pretty sure it doesn't belong to the bank.

 

[single317dad]

I am asking this only because I am not certain of the answer without research and I really don't feel like researching:

Isn't a bank (Wachovia in this case) supposed to turn over to the state any funds left abandoned in inactive/frozen/closed accounts after a certain period of time (the time of which I am assuming is less than 11 years)?

I am not sure to whom the $11,000 belongs at this point (the Florida company, the Georgia company, the former customers, someone else, the state ...) but I am pretty sure it doesn't belong to the bank.

For the record, it's five years in Florida for dormant bank accounts (a common duration among states).

 

[quincy]

For the record, it's five years in Florida for dormant bank accounts (a common duration among states).

Thanks, single317dad.

(I would have simply "liked" your post but the likes are still missing from the forum)

 

[Zigner]

I am asking this only because I am not certain of the answer without research and I really don't feel like researching:

Isn't a bank (Wachovia in this case) supposed to turn over to the state any funds left abandoned in inactive/frozen/closed accounts after a certain period of time (the time of which I am assuming is less than 11 years)?

I am not sure to whom the $11,000 belongs at this point (the Florida company, the Georgia company, the former customers, someone else, the state ...) but I am pretty sure it doesn't belong to the bank.

I agree that the funds have almost definitely escheated to the state...but the account was in the name of the company, not the OP. The money never was the OP's, and the OP won't be able to do anything to claim it. The company would need to do it.

 

[xylene]

The could be on the account holder activity, not the account. If him or this business were active that wells, that could explain why no escheatment

 

[Faithsautoworks]

Well... Wells fargo released "My Funds "

They released the funds .,they made me close out that account because it had both the company name the guy was allowing me to use and my company name on the account. They issued me a cashier check payable to my company name and they opened a new account with just my company name and had me deposit the cashiers check into new account. They made $2500 available immediately and the remaining was available the next day.
I do appreciate everyone's input.,however for the person who kept insisting that the money was,not mine as if I am a criminal he can shove it. The bank would never have given me the money if I had done something wrong or if the money belonged to someone else.
My question now is whether wells Fargo should be obligated to pay me interest in the money that say there for almost 11,years ? I would think that at the minimum they should have to pay from the date that the statue of limitations expired for anyone to bring charges or file suit. There was no,justification for them keeping the money frozen beyond that time. I can understand if they were lied to and told I committed fraud ,then I can understand holding until the statue of limitations run out,but not,for a,day longer . does anyone have any opinions or info on how that works? Thanks everyone