Q: My father in law passed away in February 2022. An unauthorized transfer of funds was made 6 months after his death.
He was a resident of South Carolina but his bank accounts were at a large National Bank office in California. My wife in South Carolina was the sole heir with ownership of the accounts and in July 2022 she received a call from an individual in New York purporting to be with the National Bank office in New York, and asking about suspicious activity on the account. He had the correct CIS Priority Account number, but after several more questions, she started challenging him, after which he hung up. Later that day, money was transferred from my Father-in-laws account to a bank in Memphis, and then to New York. We have all the details of the transfer and have contacted the bank numerous times. Their first response was that the money was already gone so there was nothing to return. When challenged again, they responded that since my wife had provided information to a Fraudster, she was responsible, and they shifted blame to her. This was a fraudulent internal transfer by someone in LA
A: You say that your wife spoke to a National Bank in New York. Then you say that the fraud was perpetrated by someone in Louisiana. I think that you need an attorney to handle this in New York. I don't know the amount of the fraud, but if it is over $25,000 then the case would be brought in the Supreme Court of New York, which is a commercial court that has experience in these types of frauds. I think that you need to discuss the matter with a commercial litigator (which I am) to see about your options.
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