Euro Pacific bank is a scam

[Radko]

Then they mistakenly counted me as OPT IN and didn't contact me as an OPT IN like they did with other customers... well, nothing to worry about, it's well managed!!

You can always contact Qenta, but they still don't have the funds so what's the point.
I'm sure as soon as they get the money they will contact you to ask you whether you are staying with them, or whether you are leaving.

 

[Martin Everson]

Does anyone think they will get their money back easily from Qenta once they receive it? Just trying to understand the business case for them taking on assets that will almost certainly want to be redeemed immediately.

 

[Radko]

Does anyone think they will get their money back easily from Qenta once they receive it? Just trying to understand the business case for them taking on assets that will almost certainly want to be redeemed immediately.

I can only think that Qenta is hoping that some customers will stay with them.
And I can only hope that I will be able to get my money from them immediately, but I don't trust them one single bit. All this process must be costing them money and resources, and we know nothing is for free in this life.

Maybe Peter could tell us how much Qenta paid to acquire the accounts.

 

[Martin Everson]

Exactly. I just cannot see them just accepting earning a wire fee from all of this debacle from those that want to withdraw their money the next day. There has to be a catch somewhere along the line to make it worth while to them i.e a $2,000 a day withdrawal limit or something and high withdrawal fees.

 

[Radko]

Exactly. I just cannot see them just accepting earning a wire fee from all of this debacle from those that want to withdraw their money the next day. There has to be a catch somewhere along the line to make it worth while to them i.e a $2,000 a day withdrawal limit or something and high withdrawal fees.

We've been told that we will be able to withdraw our money at anytime, but we haven't been told at what cost.
Peter would know that I guess.

 

[ATNTESTING]

Latest official communication on 15th September... Notifications | EPB Bank
2 months later, no update...

 

[spiderman]

"By this time Euro Pacific International Bank (“EPIB”) “Opt-Out” customers have been contacted through the designated website portal to upload certain information required by the Trustee to update and verify information required to commence the liquidation process."
I still have no idea what documents to upload. I can't find this information anywhere.

 

[Pschiff]

We've been told that we will be able to withdraw our money at anytime, but we haven't been told at what cost.
Peter would know that I guess.

I don't think the fee to have a wire sent would be high. No one thought it would take this long. The whole process was supposed to be completed a month after I sent the email asking customers what they wanted to do. Had the OCIF commissioner just allowed Qenta to buy the bank, or just allowed me to liquidate it myself without holding a press conference so the J5 could talk about how they investigated the bank for money laundering and tax evasion, despite finding no evidence of either, all the money would have been sent out by Aug or Sept 2022 the latest

 

[Radko]

I don't think the fee to have a wire sent would be high. No one thought it would take this long. The whole process was supposed to be completed a month after I sent the email asking customers what they wanted to do. Had the OCIF commissioner just allowed Qenta to buy the bank, or just allowed me to liquidate it myself without holding a press conference so the J5 could talk about how they investigated the bank for money laundering and tax evasion, despite finding no evidence of either, all the money would have been sent out by Aug or Sept 2022 the latest

Hi Peter, any idea as to why the funds are still stuck at Novo Bank?

 

[Pschiff]

I have no idea. But it's OCIF and the Receiver's fault. I have no role in what's happing anymore. They are incompetent and clearly don't care about customers. If the Commissioner cared she would have approved the sale, or at least allowed me to liquidate the bank on my own. I had previously told her if I could not find a buyer for the bank that I would liquidate it myself and personally guarantee that no customer lost any money. She originally gave me her word she would never put the bank into receivership. Then about a year later she abruptly changed her mind without any prior notice.

Just as an FYI, looking back there were a lot of false accusation made on this board accusing the bank of facilitating tax evasion and money laundering. That may have been a factor in causing the J5 to get suspicious of the bank in the first place. So ironically Offshore Crop Talk may have been responsible for the bank's demise.

 

[spiderman]

They are vampires that saw an easy prey. Suck the blood out slowly until there is nothing left.

 

[Radko]

I have no idea. But it's OCIF and the Receiver's fault. I have no role in what's happing anymore. They are incompetent and clearly don't care about customers. If the Commissioner cared she would have approved the sale, or at least allowed me to liquidate the bank on my own. I had previously told her if I could not find a buyer for the bank that I would liquidate it myself and personally guarantee that no customer lost any money. She originally gave me her word she would never put the bank into receivership. Then about a year later she abruptly changed her mind without any prior notice.

Just as an FYI, looking back there were a lot of false accusation made on this board accusing the bank of facilitating tax evasion and money laundering. That may have been a factor in causing the J5 to get suspicious of the bank in the first place. So ironically Offshore Crop Talk may have been responsible for the bank's demise.

I will never understand why the Commissioner didn't give customers a 30-day period to withdraw their funds. She could have easily closed the bank just a month later, and everyone would have been happy, except for the Receiver of course.

We keep getting told about Novo Bank being the main reason for the delay, but up to now no one has told us what the problem is, that's suspicious.

 

[Pschiff]

The problem is that during the 8-month freeze, which resulted from false accusation in the media that the bank was closed for money laundering and tax evasion, the bank lost its ability to send wires due to a failure to keep it systems current with industry changes. There was a work around, but the receiver just never did what former bank employees working for Qenta instructed him to do. Portugal was the seventh government to waste time investigating the bank for money laundering and tax evasion. As every EPB customer knows, EPB likely had stricter KYC and AML procedures than any other bank. Yet the bank was shut down merely to protect the media, that not only unethically publicized illegally leaked details of a confidential criminal investigation, but also proclaimed the bank and me guilty of crimes for which there was no evidence to ever file charges let alone get convictions.

 

[ATNTESTING]

Hi Peter, any idea as to why the funds are still stuck at Novo Bank?

View attachment 5646

Hello Radko, where did you see this update? From here Notifications | EPB Bank I can see the latest update is on 15th september.

 

[Radko]

Hello Radko, where did you see this update? From here Notifications | EPB Bank I can see the latest update is on 15th september.

Hi, I received an email with a link that took me to that update. You should have received an email as well, check your spam folder.

This update feels like one step forward, two steps back since the Receiver has now deactivated the necessary link to be able to upload the documents until the Commissioner approves the liquidation plan, and that won't happen until the Receiver can get the funds out of Novo Bank. It's been almost 9 months since the freeze was lifted and we are still stuck with that. I wish the Receiver would give us more information.

 

[Kruger]

Hi, I received an email with a link that took me to that update. You should have received an email as well, check your spam folder.

This update feels like one step forward, two steps back since the Receiver has now deactivated the necessary link to be able to upload the documents until the Commissioner approves the liquidation plan, and that won't happen until the Receiver can get the funds out of Novo Bank. It's been almost 9 months since the freeze was lifted and we are still stuck with that. I wish the Receiver would give us more information.

I am expecting a request to upload our documents a second time (a few months from now) as the excuse will be that the initial documents uploaded are no longer valid due to the time period that the process has been 'stayed'

 

[spartan7510]

The problem is that during the 8-month freeze, which resulted from false accusation in the media that the bank was closed for money laundering and tax evasion, the bank lost its ability to send wires due to a failure to keep it systems current with industry changes. There was a work around, but the receiver just never did what former bank employees working for Qenta instructed him to do. Portugal was the seventh government to waste time investigating the bank for money laundering and tax evasion. As every EPB customer knows, EPB likely had stricter KYC and AML procedures than any other bank. Yet the bank was shut down merely to protect the media, that not only unethically publicized illegally leaked details of a confidential criminal investigation, but also proclaimed the bank and me guilty of crimes for which there was no evidence to ever file charges let alone get convictions.

Pschiff Hello Peter, I have legal representation who has been in contact with the reciever, in addtion to a long list of excuses, the main hold-up still appears to be NOVO BANK refusing to release customer funds. You mentioned previously this was not an issue, but was the reciever causing the hold-up, recievers response appears to disagree with you on this. You also mentioned previously that you were going to enlist a lawyer in Portugal to petition NOVO BANK to get this resolved and release customer funds, It would be appreciated if you could follow-up on this and get your lawyer involved, since the choice of using this despicable NOVO BANK was an EPB descision alone and out of customers hands, therefore this would fall back to EPB management to resolve.​

 

[Pschiff]

Pschiff Hello Peter, I have legal representation who has been in contact with the reciever, in addtion to a long list of excuses, the main hold-up still appears to be NOVO BANK refusing to release customer funds. You mentioned previously this was not an issue, but was the reciever causing the hold-up, recievers response appears to disagree with you on this. You also mentioned previously that you were going to enlist a lawyer in Portugal to petition NOVO BANK to get this resolved and release customer funds, It would be appreciated if you could follow-up on this and get your lawyer involved, since the choice of using this despicable NOVO BANK was an EPB descision alone and out of customers hands, therefore this would fall back to EPB management to resolve.​

I hired a lawyer on behalf of the bank to get the Novo freeze removed. That really turned out to be a waste of money, as the freeze ended on its own, as it was only legally allowed to remain in place for an 8-month maximum, unless evidence of money launder was actually found, which it was not. When the freeze ended, the Receiver was told by former bank employees what he needed to do to allow Novo to send out the wires. But he never did what he needed to do. His in action I think allowed more things to laps. I am not really familiar with all of it, as I never had anything to do with the operation of the bank. But it is apparent to me that the receiver has been a huge obstacle in this process. He had absolutely no banking experience when he was appointed and a huge financial incentive to elongate the process. I don't think there is anything I can do at this point. OCIF needs to get involved. The OCIF Commissioner made this mess, so she needs to clean it up.

 

[spartan7510]

I hired a lawyer on behalf of the bank to get the Novo freeze removed. That really turned out to be a waste of money, as the freeze ended on its own, as it was only legally allowed to remain in place for an 8-month maximum, unless evidence of money launder was actually found, which it was not. When the freeze ended, the Receiver was told by former bank employees what he needed to do to allow Novo to send out the wires. But he never did what he needed to do. His in action I think allowed more things to laps. I am not really familiar with all of it, as I never had anything to do with the operation of the bank. But it is apparent to me that the receiver has been a huge obstacle in this process. He had absolutely no banking experience when he was appointed and a huge financial incentive to elongate the process. I don't think there is anything I can do at this point. OCIF needs to get involved. The OCIF Commissioner made this mess, so she needs to clean it up.

Is there a recommendation for an alternate and experienced reciever who has delt with bank liquidations in Puerto Rico? We could look to petition the OCIF to remove Wigberto for negligence in his duties, failing to stick to his own liquidation plan, however we would not want to end up in same situaiton with another useless reciever. We need someone who is known for this type of work in PR.

 

[Radko]

I was in Portugal a few weeks ago. I went to Novo Banks headquarters and after more than an hour not getting anywhere, I finally managed to speak to a lady who was familiar with the case. All that she was willing to share with me was "As of today we haven't received a proper channel to transfer the funds."

I fully agree with Peter, the Commissioner is the only one responsible for everything that's happened. She had other, much better options that would have accomplished the same result, while truly protecting the interest of the Customers. We have lost access to our money because of her, who never thought of the consequences of her actions, and here we are almost 17 months later, with no end in sight.

*At some point all of us should consider getting together to get a lawyer to represent us and put pressure on the useless Commissioner.