Chase has man jailed for trying to cash valid cashiers check
This is probably the most horrible thing I have heard come out of Chase’s inept culture.
When they purchased a home in 2006, Perez and Vargas obtained two loans from Chase’s predecessor, Washington Mutual Bank, including one loan in the amount of $312,000 secured by a first trust deed, and a second, home equity line of credit for $38,610 (the loan transactions). On February 6, 2008, Perez and Vargas withdrew $38,000 from the home equity line of credit, receiving a cashier’s check.
On November 6, 2008, Perez and Vargas presented the cashier’s check for payment at Chase’s National City branch. A branch employee informed Perez and Vargas that because the cashier’s check exceeded $10,000, cashing it in full would “require the bank to generate substantial paperwork” and cause a delay in receiving the funds which “could be avoided if the bank paid out $10,000 in cash and the balance in another bank check for $28,000.” Vargas and Perez were informed that to cash the $28,000 check that day, they “would have to go to three other banks and cash out each subsequent bank check in amounts of $10,000.00 or less at each bank.” Following the direction of the bank branch employee, Perez and Vargas cashed the $38,000 cashier’s check, receiving $10,000 in cash and a second cashier’s check in the amount of $28,000. Perez and Vargas proceeded to Chase’s Chula Vista branch, where they were given another $10,000 in cash and a third cashier’s check in the amount of $18,000.
Perez and Vargas then sought to cash the $18,000 cashier’s check at Chase’s Imperial Beach branch. According to declarations submitted by Chase, Perez presented the $18,000 cashier’s check to an operations supervisor, Nena Gelacio, who reviewed information on Chase’s computer system indicating that Perez’s account required investigation for “excess activity.” Gelacio became suspicious and asked Perez why he was attempting to cash a check that had been issued earlier in the day. Perez told Gelacio that he had cashed similar checks that day at Chase’s National City and Chula Vista branches. After receiving this information, Gelacio, the branch manager and assistant branch manager conducted an investigation and learned that in February 2008, Perez and Vargas had received a $38,000 check from the home equity line of credit account, which had not been cashed as of November 5, 2008, and that the account was closed in May 2008 and put “on collection.” The assistant branch manager called the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department (Sheriff’s Department) and requested that the department “investigate a possible fraud committed against the Bank by Perez and Vargas.”
Sheriff’s Department deputies arrived, and the assistant branch manager told them that the bank believed that the $18,000 check Perez was attempting to cash was “drawn on funds from a closed account.” The deputies took possession of the cash held by Perez ($20,000) and the $18,000 cashier’s check, and arrested Perez. Perez was jailed for five days. The San Diego District Attorney’s Office later dropped all charges.
Did you get that? The customer followed Chase’s advice and was ultimately jailed for it.
Bad bad Chase, Ineptitude | admin June 12, 2010
