Major US Bank Accused of Abruptly Freezing $42,000 in Illinois Man’s Bank Account Without Explanation: Report

An Illinois man says a major US bank abruptly froze his account, leaving him to rely on debt to make ends meet.

Jim Gibson says  JPMorgan Chase abruptly locked him out of his account for over a month while his bills piled up, reports ABC7 Chicago.

“I opened my Chase account on July 7 of this year. I regret that decision greatly… I had $42,000 sitting in that Chase account, which is not a small sum.”

According to Gibson, the bank froze his account in July of this year after he withdrew a large amount of money.

“I got an email from Chase informing me that my account had been suspended with no explanation as to why, and it was directing me to go to the local Chase branch.”

Gibson says a Chase teller told him that the bank blocked his account “to help protect against fraud.” While he did not get an additional explanation for the account restriction, he says the teller told him that he would get his money back in 10 days.

But the promised check did not arrive for weeks, and Gibson says he was forced to keep swiping his credit card to sustain his day-to-day living and other expenses.

“I was living off of a credit card. It was extremely stressful and totally unnecessary.”

Gibson says he had to contact ABC7 News’ I-Team when his situation became untenable. Chase Bank immediately sent Gibson his funds after ABC7 touched base with the lender.

Says Chase Bank in a statement,

“To help protect against fraud, we restricted Mr. Gibson’s account. After additional review and communication, we released the funds and regret the delay in that process. For privacy and security reasons, that’s all the information we can disclose.”

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