Bitcoin Exchange Sues Wells Fargo Over Massive Wire Transfer Suspension (bitcoin.com)

An anonymous reader quotes this report from the cryptocurrency news site Bitcoin.com: Bitfinex, on Wednesday, filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo for suspending its outgoing U.S. dollars wire transfers. In addition to "a preliminary and permanent injunction against Wells Fargo," the exchange is seeking compensatory damages in excess of $75,000 and any additional relief the court may deem fair as well as a jury trial for the case... The court document states that Bitfinex is a customer of four Taiwan-based banks but is not itself a customer of Wells Fargo. However, its banks in Taiwan use Wells Fargo as a correspondent bank to process U.S. dollar wire transfers, which is a normal practice in cross-border payments.
"So far, close to US$180M in funds is locked up in Wells Fargo accounts," writes The Merkle, "with no clear path to a resolution in sight." But a Bitfinex representative on social media pointed out that "Funds are not frozen," adding that Wells Fargo is just a correspondent bank, and "They have chosen to block wire transfers between us and our customers which we are challenging in court."

Another post from BFX_Brandon states that "If we allow them to simply flip a switch and disrupt business, then there becomes a precedence in the Bitcoin industry beyond just Bitfinex, so we believe it is the appropriate time to take action."

Comments

Typical Wells Fargo... Steal as much as possible..

[Anonymous Coward]

From fake accounts, to reorganizing deposits to come after payments so they charge outrageous penalties, to arbitrarily changing 30+ year old account agreements so that they can charge exorbitant "fees" for something that costs them absolutely nothing.

I recall historically when Wells Fargo meant security, safety for your funds. Now it's just a cover-up for highway robbery.

Credit unions

[DogDude]

Unless you have a net worth in the 8 figures, you really shouldn't ever do business with a for-profit bank in the US. They'll fuck you, hard. Credit unions are for normal people in the US.

Re:Credit unions

[rtb61]

Thinking of the future, this is a real warning of the dangers of a cashless society, when only corporations will decide whether you can access any product or service no matter how cheap, not even charity all transactions to or from you blocked. Need a lawyer when you are cut off in a cash less society, good luck, you have better chance of living for ever by sitting in a bath tube with a blow drier, a box of razor blades and you head bellow water level.

Re:Credit unions

[Anubis IV]

Then you clearly don't interact with them much. They jacked up rates, introduced fees for standard features, switched me to a new type of account without notice, have some of the lowest interest rates in the entire industry (I'm literally getting 100x more interest on my savings at Ally, since BofA was 0.01% when I left), forced me to call them for virtually every interaction instead of being able to handle it online, and did all sorts of other crap, all in the span of a few years that I was with them fresh out of college. I thought this was all typical stuff, so I stayed with them for way too long.

I finally left them for USAA. The difference was night and day. Do yourself a favor and switch. USAA is great. Ally is great. Local credit unions are great if you like having branches you can go to. Pretty much just anything else is better. It's easy and you won't regret it.

Re:Credit unions

[rickb928]

Changing the currency changes the cashless problem?

Who controls Bitcoin? No one? How's your transaction processing time going for ya?

Better headline

[fibonacci8]

Rival money laundering groups don't see eye to eye.

Re:Typical Wells Fargo... Steal as much as possibl

[sexconker]

That's shit-though-mouth backwards. The issuing bank can more readily identify the account, available funds, detect fraud, minimize clearing times, etc. Of course they fucking don't, because all the clearing and processing times are artificial, and are designed to hit an account holder with fees later should the check bounce. It's the same with the overdraft "protection" scam.

Re:Hey, speaking of bitcoin...

[Dagger2]

It's not money, no, but "made-up bullshit" is itself the made-up bullshit. Bitcoin is a payment network, designed for moving your existing money around -- something that it does actually work perfectly well for.

Re:Mod parent down

[Opportunist]

Banks have to make money.

Do we get to vote on that? Because somehow I could foresee that the general consensus says otherwise.

Re:Mod parent down

[NicknameUnavailable]

Times change. Banks have to make money. If you were a banker, you would instantly recognize simple facts. But you are not, so you will never understand. Charge 9% on student loans? Their's a good reason for that.

Nobody deserves to make as much of a share of the wealth in circulation as they do. The fact they make it is reason enough to hang them all.

Re:Mod parent down

[sjames]

Sorry, no. The only thing that's changed is the urge to make more money faster has overridden concerns that banks could go away if they lose consumer confidence.

Part of this changing times is that these days a bank account is more important to fully participating in society. Stuffing it under the mattress is just not much of an option anymore.

It would be interesting to see your excuse for charging customers fees for services they didn't sign up for and saw no benefit from.