Consumer complaint received 2022-11-19
Company: SILVERGATE CAPITAL CORPORATION
State: OR
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On the afternoon of Monday XX/XX/XXXX, I sent a wire transfer in a XXXX XXXX XXXX for {$92000.00}, to transfer my money from XXXX investment account that I divested from into my account at XXXX XXXX, which I had already approximately {$8700.00} in, that was in XXXX USD, as I am a spot trader of ETH and Stocks from that platform. The account my money was transferred to by Wire was registered in my name, XXXX XXXX, I have the account number for you, if needed please contact me, the beneficiary bank is Silvergate BankXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

I did not see my funds in my XXXX  XXXX account the morning of XX/XX/XXXX, at this time I got news of the potential liquidity issues of XXXX, and immediately reached out to XXXX support to see where my money was. Immediately after I heard back from XXXX support I saw the amount of {$92000.00} added to my account for a total of approximately {$100000.00} in my account. 

I do not know if the {$92000.00} was actually in my account. 

I immediately attempted to wire the funds back to my XXXX XXXX account, and wire transfer was not available on XXXX at that time, so I sent the funds back in several ACH transactions, {$30000.00} on XXXX, and on XXXX, I sent XXXX transactions of {$25000.00}, {$10000.00}, {$5000.00}, and {$700.00}, all XXXX USD. 

From information stated on the XXXX XXXX website, within my account, the XXXX USD in my account was held in trust by XXXX Bank and Trust last XXXX digits of my account number with Evolve are XXXX. I immediately received an email confirmation of the ACH transaction requests, followed by an immediate email confirmation the these transactions had been completed. I immediately reached out to XXXX support to confirm that the ACH transfers were sent and they confirmed that they had been completed and to reach back out if I did not get the money in the next XXXX days, per the time is takes an ACH to land in the receiving account. 

Later on XXXX, I felt the need to call back the rest of my money and was able to send a wire at that time, perhaps the money that was left in my account was actually in there, as I started with roughly {$8000.00} to begin with, pre wire transfer? I sent {$1000.00}, and {$2000.00}, by Wire transfer. These transfers stayed in " requested '' status until the XXXX XXXX website was taken off line. 

I had approximately {$2000.00} left in my FTX XXXX account at this time, as this money was not available to withdrawal, as I had sent an ACH transfer of {$2000.00} on XXXX, that would not be available for withdrawal until XX/XX/XXXX, as stated on the XXXX XXXX website, per their long hold time to clear that deposit. 

I waited a week for the ACHs to come and they never did. XX/XX/XXXX was a bank holiday, so I waited until Monday. I called XXXX XXXX several times and asked them to look at the ACH system, and they said no transfers were incoming to my account ending in XXXX that I had sent the money to. 

I have reached out to XXXX XXXX  and XXXX to ask if the funds were sent, and have not heard back from them regarding my question. 

I reached out to Silvergate Bank, personally, to ask them where my money went, that was sent to me, and that they were beneficiary from and was told that the money was not sent to an account for me, that it was send to an account for XXXX, who was their " client. '' They could not even tell me if they had my funds or had ever received them, despite, the wire transfer being made to me as a beneficiary, to an account in my name, with Silvergate Bank as beneficiary bank. 

I then went to the XXXX XXXX branch and spoke with a banker in order to file a wire trace on the {$92000.00}. I filed this trace as a fraud. The banker I spoke to said that the account number with my name on it that the money was sent to seemed like an international account number because he had never seen a domestic number like that, although the banker that had sent the wire from XXXX XXXX, had never mentioned to me anything about the number looking strange. From what the investigator at XXXX XXXX told me, they reached out to Silvergate Bank to claim a fraud on the funds and have the money returned to my account with XXXX, and Silvergate Bank responded that they could not send the money back due to a bankruptcy procedure. XXXX XXXX was at this point involved in a Chapter XXXX proceeding. 

I then had the case escalated to the fraud/crimes division of XXXX XXXX to see if that investigator could reach back out to Silvergate Bank to see if they could even get a confirmation that the money had been received, and also reach out to Evolve Bank and XXXX to see if the ACHs were sent, or if the money was in my account with Evolve, as was stated would be the place that would hold my XXXX dollars on the XXXX exchange XXXX I have not heard back from this XXXX, they were assigned the case on Thursday XX/XX/XXXX. 

I think Silvergate Bank should be liable, and seems like they were an accomplice to XXXX XXXX at this point. I want my money back from Silvergate Bank. I requested that Silvergate Bank send me written documentation that they received my funds and the funds were given to XXXX, and that I did not have an account with them, which is what they told me on the phone, and I have not heard back. 

I am wondering now what actions I should take and if there is a remedy to this situation that seems like a clear case of Wire fraud of the {$92000.00} with Silvergate Bank as a responsible party. 

The approximately {$8700.00} that was already in my account, seems to be affiliated with XXXX XXXX  and XXXX, and I am hoping to recover, at the very least that money, once the representative from XXXX gets back to me, but I am open to what options or advice you may have for me for that portion of the funds as well.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation