Northbrook, IL (CBS) — I have told you many times, About scammers defrauding people in our area and about banks refusing to refund defrauded customers.
The victim in this story got lucky, but then got stuck. A suburban father and son blocked a $57,000 check from reaching the criminals, but were unable to get the money back from the bank.
CBS 2’s Lauren Victory stepped in and got involved on their behalf.
A plethora of documents document every interaction between Chase, Wells Fargo and Gene Krichewski. Mr. Krichefxy never thought it would take so much paperwork to solve his problem.
Krichevsky’s troubles with a major bank began when he mentioned a rare 1963 Corvette in a Craigslist ad.
“Well, there are a lot of people interested in this vehicle,” Krychevsky said. “(I) said, ‘I’m going to pay an extra $2,000 to secure the deal.'”
And the would-be Corvette owner brought a check for $57,000 to Wells Fargo. He received a receipt but never took ownership of the car.
“Then I realized something was wrong. It was 10:46:56,” Krychevsky said.
Krychevsky’s son Mickey realized his father had been scammed.
Mickey Krichewski said, “If it sounds too good to be true.”
Mickey urged Elder Krichevsky to rush to his client, a branch of Northbrook Chase Bank. He tried to stop $57,000 from leaving his account.
“They said the check was already given to Wells Fargo,” said Gene Krichewski.
So Gene Krichewski rushed to the Wells Fargo branch and received encouraging news. The money had not yet been transferred to the fraudster’s account.
This was because Wells Fargo automatically withheld very large checks.
“We have a lot of scam victims. They sent money, but the money is gone,” Mickey Krychevsky said. “What made this so unique and different is that we got it in time.”
However, this didn’t have a clean happy ending. Remember all the paperwork Gene Krichewski had to deal with?
It represents the ordeal he underwent to get his money back.
“It’s terrible,” said Gene Krychewski. “It’s been a nightmare for over a year.”
Six months later, Wells Fargo wrote that it needed only one document from Chase, a letter of indemnification, to release the funds. Five months after the letter from Wells Fargo was published, Krychewski was still at a loss.
“I played my role well enough,” said Gene Krychewski.
“The money never left the bank, and it still can’t seem to come back,” Mickey Krychevsky said. It’s just coming and going,” he said.
CBS 2’s Victory has been working on the story for weeks and fully expected it to end by telling them the money is back in its place.
Unfortunately not.
Mr. Chase blamed “failures in management between banks” and promised to expedite his $57,000 loan for his clients.
Wells Fargo announced more than a week ago that matters with Chase have been resolved, but did not specify what that meant.
We also see that Gene Krichewski is embarrassed because he doesn’t have the money yet.