Lawsuit and customer accusations plague fintech firm WB21
The saga of money transfer service WB21 standing accused of aiding and abetting fraud is an unrelenting tale of comments, anger and a civil lawsuit.
As reported last month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed a civil lawsuit against Wintercap S.A., Roger Knox, Michael Gastauer and others, accusing WB21 N.A. Inc. of aiding and abetting its client Wintercap`s fraudulent sale of $165 million worth of shares in microcap stocks using the WB21 platform. WB21 and Mr Gastauer deny these allegations and deny any wrongdoings. The full document can be found on the SEC website here (PDF file).
The SEC says that WB21, and its tech for international payments, was used by Wintercap to circumvent regulations designed to disguise the clients’ identities. The SEC also says that Gastauer “repeatedly lied to banks” and made a series of false claims in dealing with various organisations. In response to the SEC allegations, WB21said “WB21 and Mr Gastauer deny the allegations and any wrongdoing. The SEC accuses Mr Knox and Wintercap S.A. of securities fraud and other offences. Mr Gastauer has not been accused of fraud. There are no criminal proceedings against WB21 and/or Mr Gastauer”.
On its website, WB21 calls itself a digital bank and offers account opening for 180 countries in 28 currencies. Its last tweet was yesterday (27 November). This month, FinTech Futures was contacted by a source that says two firms are owed $2 million via WB21’s money transfer service. One of them the source currently works for, the other was a previous job. The source revealed the company names to us but did not want to go public on his/her name and the firms’ names. I have checked them out and all appear legitimate.
The source says: “WB21 is withholding funds with no explanation or contact whatsoever. Transfers from WB21 to third parties have not been executed. Impossible to withdraw funds from WB21 account.” This user has attempted to contact WB21 repeatedly but to no avail. WB21 says that without disclosure of any client specific information, WB21 is not able to discuss such matters publicly. However, in general terms, the main reason why clients might find their accounts to be restricted, is if there are compliance or risk related issues.
A very basic search on its name or other variations will reveal the nature and extent of the allegations being made against WB21. Some of the accusers have gone public with their names. Others didn’t.
Comments included “WB21 Customer Service keep saying my money is safe but I have asked several times to send me the swift confirmation and they have not, so it means they have stolen the money.”
On the whole it’s a very bleak and repetitive situation for a lot of people. There are simply too many negative comments to mention. That doesn’t make a firm guilty of a crime, but it does raise some questions.
FinTech Futures contacted WB21 for its response to these accusations and it did not initially reply but WB21 later commented saying “given their total numbers of customers being in the millions, the number of complaints found on the internet are less than 0.0001%.” According to WB21, “it is the usual pattern that happy bank customers simply stay silent and only those who believe they have reason to complain go public.”
I have been one of those scammed by WB21, 60 days ago I transferred money from my WB21 USD account to another account of mine in another country. The money does not appear either in the WB21 origin account or in the destination account. I have filed claims in MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) and in the Singapore police, but both have told me that they have no competence to resolve this issue. I can’t believe my money has been lost. I’m totally disappointed!!
I was also in a similar case, on 9 of March 2018, I made a transfer of 50,750.00 USD on my personal account via CITI Bank (Transaction ID: 38327180909191231105). Despite my repeated appeals to WB21, nothing was changed! I consulted Wealth Watch Intl, a Michigan based financial chargeback institution. 6 weeks later, I received a call from Marcus Gate, the Admin Consultant. He asked me a few questions and had my funds forwarded. It was quite an experience. Happy to share. marcusgate @consultant com
You’re welcome to contact me here: https://www.fintechfutures.com/contact-us/ I will need to see the evidence. I can then contact WB21 and let them reply. (Although they have ignored previous emails.) Thanks.
I have the same problem but since one year I have been chasing my money and nobody feels responsible here ….. on the phone always the same stupid excuses so I am now held out for about 1 year can only recommend take off your fingers from this unserious “Bank” when you like call it like this
The scourge of financial fraud continues to expand with Forex and binary options fraud, in particular, gaining ground globally with hundreds of people around the world are targeted each day.
Most binary options companies out there are fraudulent. They are all scams. I have been a victim of their activities. I invested about $48,000 and when i wanted to withdraw after some weeks, I was unable to reach their contact numbers or emails with which we stayed in touch. I assumed they were having some maintenance routing check, as that had happened in the past. After some weeks, I was contacted again by them and was asked to invest which i refused and told them i wanted to withdraw my money. After this, i didn’t hear from them again. At this point, I started to feel like i had been duped. I was lost and shattered as i had lost most of my savings. I was depressed for about 4 months. I was too ashamed to tell anyone about it, not even my children. I finally summoned the courage to tell my friend who came to visit me in the UK from New Zealand. He told me about a firm which specializes on helping get money back called fund Recovery. I contacted them and was guided to recovering most of my money. I was a great feeling to get some of my money back, as i had given up all hope.
Hello. What’s name the firm which specializes on helping get money back?
I need back to money..