Bank of America Money Transfers Complaint

Bank of America Money transfers department,

Domestic (US) money transfer Other transaction issues Florida

On -/-/2016, we submitted an online wire transfer from our company, - - -, to The - - as prepayment for a truckload of methanol that was going out the next day. This payment was seized by either our bank ( Bank of America ), or by the receiving bank ( - - ). It is difficult to tell just who had our money, as each bank said they did not have our money, and that the other bank was responsible. We were told that it was flagged by the Office of Foreign Asset Control ( OFAC ) as somehow being a foreign transaction, or suspicious in some way. The transaction was neither foreign, nor suspicious, as we only do domestic business selling methanol ( a fuel ) to US destinations. ( This one was - to -. ) We ( - - ) have been doing online wire transfers for several years in the normal course of our business as methanol brokers, which is well known to Bank of America. The intended recipient of this payment, The - -, is a major supplier of methanol, and does a large volume of business with this commodity - much larger than


days later ( -/-/- ), the funds were still being held, so we submitted a replacement wire transfer online. This payment, too, was seized. At this point, our supplier, The - -, believed we had failed to pay for the - loads that had gone out to us during that time, and so we paid them AGAIN for the same - loads of methanol. This amounted to $8100.00 that we paid twice, so $16000.00 total. Some companies in our same situation may very well have lost the entire account - and we would have lost this important account as well - had we been unable to replace the funds ourselves while we waited for our funds to be released, which took TWO WEEKS. The second payment was released only today, -/-/2016, which is 16 days after the first payment was seized. At this writing, we have been able to salvage this new account by sending payments overnight in the mail, bypassing the wire process altogether. This new account will generate significant revenue for us, assuming these bureaucrats do n't succeed in killing it for us. The reason I am reporting this incident is because I believe one or both banks are systematically misappropriating funds that they hold and/or use at their discretion without just cause, while causing serious harm to the business interests of their customers ( eg - our company, and other companies like us. ) These people were given all the information they needed to make a determination as to the nature of the transaction on the FIRST day they asked for it, and yet, they continued to hold our funds for 14 more days. This is outrageous! These banks should be monitored and/or investigated for abuse / misuse of their customer 's money.