Yesterday I got this email "Dear client,
In our letter from March 19, 2018 on the termination of the cooperation with the shell-companies, we requested You to undergo the procedure of the enhanced due diligence until May 21, 2018.
Taking into account that the specified deadline has passed and the information available to the Bank, the preventive risk assessment has been conducted.
The Bank accepts to bear the AML risk, that has arisen in relation to the cooperation with Your shell–company, and upon the payment of the compensation for the mentioned risk and completion of other specific requirements,
to carry out the transfer of the funds to the account of Your company in another bank or to the account, from which the funds were received earlier. The transfer can be only made to the bank that is registered in the country that simultaneously is a member state of the European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, besides the Republic of Latvia.
In order to obtain more details, please contact Your personal manager.
Yours sincerely,
JSC "Rietumu Banka"
But what surprised me most is that also the bank asked me to open a deposit account in my name for no less than 2 years with 20% of the balance of the business account, otherwise they will not let me transfer the money.
However the request to open the deposit account was not written in their email.
My question is: can Rietumu legally do that? It seems an unreasonable request. Also why they didn't write that in their email but simply requested over the phone? I think they did it not to leave sign of something they could not request.
Anyone has a professional/expert opinion?
Thank you