Rietumu - for all victims of fraudulent account closure and theft of funds

[Doke123]

When they asked me to provide a bank account in Euro to send the money too and I provided them with this.
They did not respond and after calling them 3 times they told me me a crazy amount of fees I need to pay for them to accept the risk. They also told me I needed to open a personal bank account and but a huge amount there for 3 years.
This is absurd since they have sent me a message about that all documents have been provided and I paid the 1000 euro they just took.

When I asked them to put this in a private message and show me how the fees are calculated they told me:
That the information could not provided in written form.

Smells like a bank in trouble who tries to screw the leaving customers!
Please Dana if your solution really works can you send me the email templates used?

 

[globalconsultancy]

Just a quick update.

We were able to get our funds released and wired out to the account of our choice.

The ML/terrorist financing designation was removed and the account was closed as a regular old boring account.

This happened after several calls to the account manager from a London law firm. Whether or not this had any bearing on the bank's decision to release the funds is anyone's guess.

Good luck to everyone still waiting to get their money back.

 

[globalconsultancy]

If you incorporate as UK Ltd (or even an LLP with resident member) - I am sure it won't be hard to open retail bank accounts.
That would automatically make you tax resident, though.

The beauty of LLP set up is that it's a pass-thru vehicle. It's taxed where owners/members are taxed.

I see no reason for a 1-2 man company to pay corporate taxes and then pay income taxes.

We only need company to be classified as a business and trade like one. Adding 19-20% tax for that is a very costly privilege!
Being a sole trader is an option, however, with two people LLP was a better one... until it became abused by those who appointed no-name no-traces corporate members in offshore jurisdictions..

You only get double-taxed on dividend income if you are a shareholder of a UK limited company (dividends are paid out of distributable income that has already been taxed at the corporate level.) If you are an employee, there is no double taxation - your salary would be fully deductible at the corporate level and you would be responsible for your own taxes wherever you live. If you do not live or work in the UK, as an employee of a UK company you have no UK tax liability - income or national insurance. As far as the HMRC is concerned, you are a non-resident employee paid gross wages (they have a special NT = No Tax payroll code for that.)

 

[JohnS]

Just a quick update.

We were able to get our funds released and wired out to the account of our choice.

The ML/terrorist financing designation was removed and the account was closed as a regular old boring account.

This happened after several calls to the account manager from a London law firm. Whether or not this had any bearing on the bank's decision to release the funds is anyone's guess.

Good luck to everyone still waiting to get their money back.

Hey there,

Can you please send me the contact details of the London Law Firm?

It would be of tremendous help.

We have contacted 8 Latvian law firms.

Only one has responded and has asked us for a 5000 EUR upfront payment in order to take the case.

Plus, I trust the Brits will do a better job.

Thank you so much! e-mail: [email protected].

 

[Lionel]

Hi guys,

Been following this chat for some time - Can someone who is already on all email lists, and telegram lists etc make a summary of all the details?

So I and other in the same situation can easily log on to them all?

I am having several hundreds of thousands Euros in the bank and all I see is the total going down - As the accounts are dormant I cannot even see what they charge for.
Fees charged until now is up towards 10k EUR.

I have worked with a prominent local law firm but they are more or less giving up also due to the lack of reply and actions from the bank. Even denying them entrance to meetings already schedules with the manager. With a price fee for the law firm of 5k and no result I would like to join your correspondence.

Wish us all good luck.

 

[Mary Anny]

Here we go; the main web site for Latvian Commission is FKTV.lv. Mail was sent to [email protected]. I can also confirm that they acted and replied within the 2 weeks, stating that they inspection is in progress (which explains sudden agreement to close the account with no restrictions regardless of DD). I would suggest that we send as many complaints as possible, ASAP,. They have confirmed that information shared during the inspection will remain confidential. They have also stated the following:
/
Moreover, if you consider that you have incurred losses as a result of the Bank's unjustified action, it would be a civil dispute and you have the right to seek protection in court of your infringed rights by law under the Civil Procedure Law of the Republic of Latvia (i.e. Section 1) according to which every natural or legal person has a right to protection of their infringed or disputed civil rights, or interests protected by law, in court./

Thank you Dana.
Could you please provide a template and script of what you have written to the commission? Of course take out aany personal details. That would be very helpful. Happy to hear you found a way out.
Thank you so much.

 

[ddavid]

Hey there,

Can you please send me the contact details of the London Law Firm?

It would be of tremendous help.

We have contacted 8 Latvian law firms.

Only one has responded and has asked us for a 5000 EUR upfront payment in order to take the case.

Plus, I trust the Brits will do a better job.

Thank you so much! e-mail: [email protected].

Just a quick update.

We were able to get our funds released and wired out to the account of our choice.

The ML/terrorist financing designation was removed and the account was closed as a regular old boring account.

This happened after several calls to the account manager from a London law firm. Whether or not this had any bearing on the bank's decision to release the funds is anyone's guess.

Good luck to everyone still waiting to get their money back.

Could you please also send to me the contact method of this UK law form? Thanks in advance! [email protected]

 

[Mary Anny]

I suggest to anyone n this situation to write a message on the Internet Banking system saying the "you are preparing a letter to report your situation including money estrortion and unreasonably high fees to the Latvian money and capital commission and EU commission". They should inform you that your funds are released and you can transfers them to an account in the same name to another bank. It didi work for me. I wish you luck, and I am open to a class action. - Have a nice we

 

[JohnS]

It did not work for me. How much money did you have blocked? And from where is your company? It probably depends on how much money you have blocked and from where your company is. The more money you have blocked, the less chance that you will recover it rapidly.

 

[ddavid]

Thank you Dana.
Could you please provide a template and script of what you have written to the commission? Of course take out aany personal details. That would be very helpful. Happy to hear you found a way out.
Thank you so much.

Dear Mary, have you got the template?

 

[Dana]

I had about eur 100K, and company is formed in Nevis. THings started moving when Commission asked for documentation in my case, before that just nothing.

 

[ddavid]

I had about eur 100K, and company is formed in Nevis. THings started moving when Commission asked for documentation in my case, before that just nothing.

Dear Dana,

It would be highly appreciated if you could send to me the template.

And, on FKTV sites, there are lots of links, which one should we send email to? Europe central bank?

 

[JohnS]

Dear all,

I don't want to be rude or anything, but it seems that most people here just want to brag that they solved their issue.

I would like to congratulate you!

But how about lending us a hand, here?

How can you do that?

1) Be specific

If you got your money back, tell us in detail how you did it. Each single step.

2) If you say law firm, then name it here or send it through private message or e-mail.

Globalconsultancy posted a lot here, then he said that a London law firm has helped him, yet we still don't know which Law firm was that.

Lionel, you have a huge amount of money blocked and I'm sorry to hear that.

Can you please tell us the name of the local law firm that has almost given up, while taking you 5k?

To know who to avoid.

After my interaction with several prominent local law firms, I realized that most of them view this case as a means of further squeezing money from people like us, who are already squeezed by the bank.

For them, this is a business opportunity.

Some of them charge even higher than usual, because they know that you're desperate to get your money back.

So don't be naive.

Contact as many law firms as possible, ask questions and evaluate their expertise, before moving forward.

I have yet to choose one, but I will do that either today or tomorrow.

I might have different criteria than you, so I would recommend you to contact as many law firms as possible and then see if they fit your criteria.

Besides closing it's abroad officeson March 31st, the bank also fired 100 people from its Latvian operation last week.

There's no one answering the phone anymore.

And while other have fixed this by the phone a couple of weeks ago, there's a 99% that you won't be able to do that today.

 

[Martin Everson]

Dear Dana,

It would be highly appreciated if you could send to me the template.

And, on FKTV sites, there are lots of links, which one should we send email to? Europe central bank?

Just don't take any actions that may jeopardize the banks operating license by involving the ECB. Things are very bad for this bank and it is suffering huge bank run on its deposits. At the end of this month (Q2) you will find out if the bank can continue its current operations or will perform a bail-in. I read a media article that an announcement is also expected by the bank. I personally feel that the last 3 months will prove to have been profitable months for the bank with the amount of money it has literally stolen from clients. Perhaps a takeover or merger will be announced.

Opinion:
You guys need to stick together and do a class action rather than every man for himself. Hire a lawyer, setup a specific website and garner media attention. Find a competent international law firm that specializes in blocked accounts and work out a no win no fee agreement. File for not only returning of funds but damages. Hopefully just the scale of the filing with scare the bank into returning funds asap.

 

[JohnS]

Just don't take any actions that may jeopardize the banks operating license by involving the ECB. Things are very bad for this bank and it is suffering huge bank run on its deposits. At the end of this month (Q2) you will find out if the bank can continue its current operations or will perform a bail-in. I read a media article that an announcement is also expected by the bank. I personally feel that the last 3 months will prove to have been profitable months for the bank with the amount of money it has literally stolen from clients. Perhaps a takeover or merger will be announced.

Opinion:
You guys need to stick together and do a class action rather than every man for himself. Hire a lawyer, setup a specific website and garner media attention. Find a competent international law firm that specializes in blocked accounts and work out a no win no fee agreement. File for not only returning of funds but damages. Hopefully just the scale of the filing with scare the bank into returning funds asap.

I personally think that the fastest it goes bankrupt, the better for us. At this point, this seems to be the only way that we can recover our money. So, I'm all in for involving the ECB. As long as the bank doesn't care about us, we shouldn't care about the bank. The bank has done a lot of damage to us and it will continue to do so. Because this bank only cares about its own survival. It will put itself first no matter what. And it will continue to illegally use our money to avoid bankruptcy until it goes bankrupt. So the fastest it goes down, the better for us. The guys who had money in ABLV (the bank that started this fiasco) have already being paid after the bank went bankrupt.

As I was told by two law firms, the bank has reached a point where it does not care about lawyers, complaints etc.

The only way to attract media attention and to get something done is by making the case known to Irish or UK media and thus put pressure on the Irish billionaire who owns a 30% stake in the bank. That guy has a reputation to save if he wants to continue doing business with other billionaires and prominent companies. That's how things go in Western Europe. By comparison, the Latvian guys who owns the bank, own a large part of the country, everyone know who they really are, so they don't care about media.

A class action is not suitable here.

First of all, I might be mistaken, but class action cannot be filled by entities, only by individuals. Not to mention that Latvia might not have a class action legislation. Finally, there are major differences between common law and continental law.

We're all influenced by Hollywood law movies, but continental law, the one that rules in France, Germany, Spain...and Latvia, it's extremely different.

Second of all, while the legal matter is identical (i.e. they have blocked our account and unlawfully charged us) we all have different situations. Some companies failed or barely passed the due diligence process, come from jurisdictions which raise eye-brows etc. For example, you can't compare a foreign company from Belize with one from the UK. And not even one from Belize to one from Hong Kong.

In UK and Hong Kong they require you to disclose the beneficial owner, to submit financial statements and audited reports, etc.

The first quarter was profitable too, of course: Rietumu Banka - Regulatory Quarterly Reporting

 

[Educate]

Anyone found a good European bank where to transfer money from Rietumu?

Which EU bank is legitimate and can accept leaving clients from RB?

There must be one.

 

[Old Spice]

Depends on your corporate domain. If it's on the EU member states blacklisted countries then you need a bank in a non-EU state country. Norway is rubbing shoulders with the EU member states so that country will not help here. The 500 000 Euro deposit might open doors in Luxemburg but I don't have a confirmation on this yet. Andorra relies mostly on off-shore companies and foreign individuals but has a strict compliance policy with information exchange to your home country.

 

[Educate]

Rietumu wants an account in Europe that is in company's name. Company registered in Seychelles.

 

[Old Spice]

If you don't have a problem with the banking policies in Andorra then they might give you an account. There are only 5 national banks to choose from so the country is not influenced that much by banks outside of the country. Someone else here might chip in about other countries that can provide an affordable bank in Europe but not in one of the member states due to the blacklist issued. Regardless of where you chose to bank you will need a personal visit.

 

[Educate]

What is specific about banking policies in Andorra? First time hearing of this jurisdiction. Which banks in Andorra would you recommend?

Regardless of where you chose to bank you will need a personal visit.

Banks that require personal visits won't work for us. LeuPay, Revolut, Bunq, N26 - none of these require personal visits.

Personal visits in 2018 is absurd. I don't see how bank can compete with "personal visit" requirement when there are plenty of financial institutions that will open you an account remotely only with document scans.