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Is Affidavit Sufficient Reason for Bank to Act?

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Question: 
Client "A" signs an affidavit stating his partner client "B" has forged checks to himself and deposited them into his own private account. We (the bank) close all of "B"'s accounts and give "A" the money. There is no court order to release the funds, we acted only on "A"'s claim. Have we broken any major rules/regulations?
Answer: 

Unless you had a legal reason for taking the funds out of B's account and transferring them to A's account, you could have problems with a suit for wrongful dishonor and other misdeeds from B. The problem is that you apparently acted without knowledge of the facts. All you had to go with was the affidavit, which is simply a statement made under the penalty of perjury. A's allegation hadn't been proved.

If it turns out that B did in fact steal from A, you might not get burned, but if A's affidavit was false, you could be looking at some hefty damages owed to B. Contact bank counsel before doing anything else with this matter.

First published on BankersOnline.com 2/01/10

First published on 02/01/2010

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