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

Hi,
I have read this topic to late, i am also a victim, they charged me with a 4 number amount,
and i closed the account already by the bank in februar.
Is there any update regarding the lawsuit?

I'm another Rietumu victim, and for a much larger amount

Same s*it - AML, KYC documentation requests that go on forever, they take 2-3 weeks to just review the docs just to come back and ask for more stupid stuff

We have "Jelena Fjodorova" and "Anna Golovina" answering messages without giving any concrete answers or dates. Complete BS.

Ah, an of course - they charge EUR 500-900 every time they "review" some new document they asked for...in addition to a EUR 1,000/m account "maintenance" fee they just came up with out of the blue...

The irony is that they're charging fees for an account that's not even active...they have frozen all funds for credit and debit...

...yet they can debit their extortionate fees as they please!

Ridiculous

This bank is going down (insolvent) and they are trying to grab (correction: steal) every cent they can

Have contacted a few lawyers in Riga, let's sue the s*it out of these people...

and I won't stop there until they give me every single cent of my money back (including their extortionate "fees")

PM me, let's file a class action lawsuit (plus a few more "tricks" I have down my sleeve)
 
besides the lawsuit consider a lawyer on your own. If you see the 1st and 2nd quarter financial statements of the bank they are about to be bust at the end of this year. 3rd quarter numbers still arent available on their website...
 
besides the lawsuit consider a lawyer on your own. If you see the 1st and 2nd quarter financial statements of the bank they are about to be bust at the end of this year. 3rd quarter numbers still arent available on their website...

Financials look fine and worst looks to be over for this Latvian laundering house. Apart from reputational risk to their business where is the indication in the financials that they are about to go bust?

https://www.rietumu.lv/documents/english/reports/2018-Q2.pdf
 
Their assets went down 50%just in the first two quarters. Compared to 12.2017. They are still blocking a lot of funds of account holders.

Yes worse looks to be over as I said and their assets outflow actually stabilized between Q1 and Q2 with a slight increase in assets actually. Unless trend reverts in Q3 then I don't see any issues. In fact their balance sheet is solid and liquidity very high. The bank is highly liquid and well capitalized it is better financially than 99% of banks if you go through their balance sheets. They are more profitable than last year in fact and still the 2nd biggest bank in Latvia I believe.

However they have destroyed their reputation so have no were no go to recover it. Perhaps they will change their name like their fellow laundering house Baltikums Bank did to BlueOrange Bank to rid themselves of the same past issues and start a new page ;).
 
Hi all,
I am also a Rietumu victim, unfortunately i have found this forum too late.
could we please get in touch?
Is there any update regarding the class suit against Rietumu?
Did any of you contact the Ombudsman and/or FKTK- FCMC - "Financial and Capital Market Commission" in Latvia, if yes, what did they answer?
Did any of you managed to get the unreasonably high fees or at least a part of it back from the Rietumu bank ?
 
Hi all,
Do somebody know, where can i find the regulations states, how the bank must inform
the client regarding tariff changes, i cant believe that, they can multiplicate their fees as they want, and do not inform their customers. If you disagree, They will just let you know that they posted a price update somewhere on their website and will send you an automated message.

the answer from the bank:
"Dear Client,

As you had noticed, 'Low activityfee' was introducedbythe Bank on May 1 2017 (this information can be found in the "News" section of the Bank'swebsite - Rietumu Banka - for business and private banking. Get more from bank accounts, credit cards, term deposits and investments ). Bank, unfortunately, is unable to waive the fees accrued for the low-activity on the account."

i never checked this news section and also did not log in the internetbank 6 months long. eventuelly as i logged in, i noticed they charged my 1350EUR in this 6 months period for maintence costs.

I am preparing a letter to report this situation including unreasonably high fees to the Latvian money and capital commission FKTK and EU commission and also for the Ombudsman.
 
I have never been a customer of Rietumu. Maybe someone else here can help you.
 
Could you please tell me where can i find the laws, which regulate the unilateral contract modification of a Financial Institution (Bank) against their customers?

As far as I know the customer must be informed from the bank directly in writing, by mail or at least by SMS.

My Issue is that Rietumu Bank charged me about 1400EUR, because they introduced the low activity fee of 200EUR/month starting of 01st of Mai 2017, what i noticed only 6 months later, because i didn`t log in in the internet bank before.

When i reported the problem, and told them, that i disagree, they just have let me know that they posted a price update in the "News" section of the Bank'swebsite (https://www.rietumu.com)
Is this legally sufficient to inform the customers about tariff changes?

Can I sue the bank regarding this unfounded high fees in court with a civil dispute if the legal relation is already terminated?
 
Look in this thread or another thread on Rietumu on this forum. Some people did some statements on these changes in tariffs several months ago. I agree with you that Rietumu acted wrong and is a bunch of lowlife crooks but to sue them will cost you a multiple of the 1400 Euro you lost with no guarantee on the outcome. As with any non 1st tier bank in the world: logon regularly to avoid surprises of any kind. Many people cut their losses and just went on. Do you still have funds with them?
 
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I lost access to my US company's account with Rietumu in July 2017 after my access device was destroyed in a fire.

Lack of access to the banking system prevented me from reading any of the messages sent via the banking system. Some of those messages were critically important. They have a contact phone number and email which they could have sent important messages to. I was in contact with my personal banker via email with regards to sending documentation to regain access by activating a new access device, but not once did he mention any other urgent actions required to maintain my account. I made four prior attempts in providing documentation to the bank to activate the device (the people assisting were incredibly unhelpful), finally succeeding on the fifth attempt in November 2018, which is when I logged in for the first time after a year.

My company's account was terminated and the money was moved to a holding account. Over 20 000 € was deducted (5k € a month for holding account penalty fee) and 200 € a month was deducted since 2017 for low account activity.

My company has been banking with them since 2006 and is an entirely transparent student consulting company fully KYC/AML compliant and we always sent customer passport copies and invoices to the bank on request.

Fortunately we have a US Bank account and also use Transferwise. Our Rietumu account made it easier for our mostly European clients to pay us in GBP and EUR hence our reason for holding an account there.

I requested a refund and they declined. I'm keen on taking this further. Sorry to hear about everyone's losses. Regardless of all the legalities Rietumu legitimizes this unfair practice with, the bottom line is that its robbery and I think its worth pursuing this matter collectively.
 
Financial and Capital Market Commission
Adress: 1 Kungu street, Riga, LV-1050
e-mail: [email protected]
Phone: + (371) 6 7774800

Riga 21.12.2018
Nr. 05.01.06/4783

Miklos Tamas

[email protected]

Response to the application

Dear Mr Tamas,

The Financial and Capital Market Commission (hereinafter – the Commission) received your application dated 20.11.2018. on the activities of JSC Rietumu Banka (hereinafter – the Bank).

Please be informed, that in accordance with Section 60, Paragraph 1 of the Credit Institution Law relationships between a credit institution and a client shall be regulated by the law and by the contracts that have been entered into. The Law does not confer upon the Commission any rights to interfere in the credit institution and client relationships, as well as the Commission is not responsible for regulating the contract amendment procedure by means of laws or regulations.

At the Commission's disposal there is information that usually the terms of the amendment of the agreement concluded between bank and a client are specified in the agreement itself.

In addition the Commission is of the opinion that credit institutions are eligible to specify commission fees on their services, and in view that those services are not qualified as public services, they are not subject to the public regulation on prices (tariffs) and their use.

If you are qualified as consumer, you may refer to Consumer Rights Protection Center (www.ptac.gov.lv; [email protected]) regarding pre - contractual information obligation provided for agreements concluded with consumers.

If you consider that you have suffered damage as a result of the Bank's activities or its employees' behavior (also in the past), you have the right to protection in court of your infringed or disputed civil rights, or interests protected by law under the Civil Procedure Law of the Republic of Latvia (i.e. Section 1).



Yours sincerely,

Gunta Razāne
Deputy Chairwoman
Financial and Capital Market Commission

S. Zelča;
+371 6777 4800
[email protected]
 
Thanks for posting the reply here Marius and for making the effort to follow through on this.

I'm wondering if we could gather as a collective and create videos to post on social sites like youtube and vimeo, where we give an account of our experience with Rietumu? We could then include a collection of videos and testimonials submitted by people effected by Rietumu's unfair policies in a simple website created for this purpose. My sense is that in terms of hours invested in getting the funds returned, we may get more traction with this approach as compared to the regular legal channels. There is a possibility that Rietumu may offer compensation in exchange for taking down our reviews and complaints. Just an idea. Any thoughts or interest?
 
Hello,
I am the victim of Rietumu. I want transfer out all the money but they still keep my money under Due Dilligence.
They frozen my account and after that they closed my account and then took all my money out using unreasonably high fee.
Is there anyone who has managed to recover his money?
 
Hello,
I am the victim of Rietumu. I want transfer out all the money but they still keep my money under Due Dilligence.
They frozen my account and after that they closed my account and then took all my money out using unreasonably high fee.
Is there anyone who has managed to recover his money?
Actually there should be alot of people who already finished this story with Rietumu bank. I know few people who already did that, but they all had to pay the bank % of the amount on their accounts or leave a deposit. Also this "due dilligance" is the thing which you really need to pass since they wont offer you any options to leave without it.