Consumer complaint received 2024-05-25
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Funds not received from closed account
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (DC)

My Citibank account has been closed on account of suspected fraud ( the activity was proven to not be fraudulent - more details below on background - but then account was closed anyways ). I was supposed to receive the balance of my account by XX/XX/XXXX ( 60 days after closing ). I did not receive the balance and so I went into a local branch and was told that Citibank had reviewed the remaining funds and could not verify that they rightfully belonged to me. With the exception of one small deposit from a wedding fund, the only money that was entering that account was 1 ) my direct deposit from my employer, 2 ) direct bank transfers from XXXX XXXX which manages by securities account and XXXX ) checks written to me from my partner and my mother-in-law ( the mother-in-law check was also a cashier 's check so 100 % verifiable ). Included in the attachment is an overview of the final charges/balances on the account at the time of closing, which indicates that the balance they will not return to me is likely from the cashier 's check my mother-in-law wrote. They had no information as to why they were concluding that the remaining funds were fraudulent and did not provide me with any written account or evidence that indicated the funds were not rightfully mine. They have said they are planning to investigate further but also said that the funds were already absorbed by Citibank and so I am not optimistic that this money will be returned to me. Essentially, Citibank has stolen my money on account of their own unfounded claim that the funds are not rightfully mine. Hoping for help. 

Background into original closing of account : My fiance and I were closing on a home and consolidating the funds for the down payment into my Citibank checking account. He wrote me two separate checks and both had cleared into my account the morning of XX/XX/XXXX, so I went to citibank to get a cashier 's check for the title company, where I had no issue. A day later I received an automated email from Citibank that my account balance was below a certain threshold which would not have made sense even if the title company had withdrawn the check for the down payment. Turns out that AFTER one of the checks from my fiance cleared, and my cashier 's check was written, the bank rejected those funds and sent them back to his account/bank, which left me overdrawn by over {$26000.00}. We promptly had my mother in law go to our local bank branch with a cashier 's check for the amount needed to get my account back into a positive balance, as by this day we were out of town on a planned vacation, and I was told by the branch representatives that I would simply need to come in to the branch in person upon my return to get the account unblocked. When I did go in, they said Citibank had decided to close my account and that I would receive the remaining balance in 30-60 days, but i have not received this and upon checking with Citibank again they are now saying that they are deeming this remaining balance unverified and have absorbed the funds themselves and I will not be getting them back.