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I started using EPB account to collect emergency funds like a vault long time ago. It was a fraction of my salary as airline captain to be spent in a case of job loss like happened during covid 19. I paid the taxes everywhere I needed to pay. I realized that EPB anonymity and no CRS was an effective way to collect money and take advantage into not to pay taxes but I didn’t. And because never say never I kept the all amount of money collected below the potential level that would cause penal problems for tax evasion in my country, just as a safety measure. But not necessary. Now I’m very upset like you all not to have my money back immediately. It’s very unfair.
 
Thank you for the swift reply Marketint. Firstly I should ask if you are ok? Did you have anything to worry about?
I think the Dutch and Aussies were the first receivers of the info. Are you from one of those nations? Have you settled with your tax authority or is it still ongoing? Did they pursue you civilly or criminally?
Yes I am from one of those. My case is closed. I decided to bring it for the civilly court and have to wait now. I just followed advice from advisors that I pay for. It’s now still civilly but I already got a message that they will bring it to criminal court to.

They got a list of all debit card holders. With that list they sent a information request to st Vincent to receive a copy of all your files. (I know the bank was already moved before that date but they have all the files). And also they sent a information request to the correspondent bank in uk but I don’t know exactly what they asked from them.
 
Yes I am from one of those. My case is closed. I decided to bring it for the civilly court and have to wait now. I just followed advice from advisors that I pay for. It’s now still civilly but I already got a message that they will bring it to criminal court to.

They got a list of all debit card holders. With that list they sent a information request to st Vincent to receive a copy of all your files. (I know the bank was already moved before that date but they have all the files). And also they sent a information request to the correspondent bank in uk but I don’t know exactly what they asked from them.

I'm sorry to hear you still have criminal worries Marketint. I hope the courts in your country show leniency or better yet the authorities choose not to prosecute. I am meeting with a lawyer on Thursday to review my options and currently it looks like I can make the necessary disclosures to avoid prosecution and keep it to a civil settlement. It'll be expensive but avoiding jail seems more important right now.
 
I'm sorry to hear that some of you have been contacted by the tax authorities. I have dealt with different tax authorities through out my life and I have gone to court to fight the tax authorities in 3 occasions, I've won all 3.
My humble advice is to keep calm and not panic, everytime I was contacted by tax authorities there was a high degree of bluffing, they never had as much information as I thought they would. As we all know they play the game of inducing panic by threatening you with jail time, let them show you their cards, they have to prove with tangible evidence that you have committed a crime, so stay calm and don't rush into doing anything.

HMRC is not nearly as nasty as other tax authorities, they don't gain anything by sending you to jail, other foreign tax authorities all they want to do is throw you in jail and leave you penniless.

Remember that having an offshore account is perfectly legal, if you invested your money and you had capital gains but you didn't pay taxes on that, it will be ok, chances are the taxes that you owe are not that significant, so relax.

Best of luck.
 
I think at this point, if we dont get our money back, that would effectively be a tax write off...

The irony of all this is that none of us have any of that money, and we don't know if or when we will get it back.

You guys can literally tell the tax authorities "I will happily pay the taxes if I had any money."
 
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I am losing track of the story.

Are we just waiting for a software fix or is Novo bank still part of the problem?

I don't think at this point we know what's going on.
Everything was about the "freeze", but it turned out the freeze was lifted back in February.
Then Peter said something about the bank lacking the necessary "software" to process all the wire transfers, but I'm sure if Novo bank wanted they could go ahead and transfer all the funds, so who knows what's going on, those updates given by the bank on their website don't explain much.

Personally, I think it would be better if nobody opted out, so all the funds can be transferred to Qenta in one single transaction, and then from Qenta we can all take our money to another financial institution.

I guess for now all that we can do is wait until.....
 
I don't think at this point we know what's going on.
Everything was about the "freeze", but it turned out the freeze was lifted back in February.
Then Peter said something about the bank lacking the necessary "software" to process all the wire transfers, but I'm sure if Novo bank wanted they could go ahead and transfer all the funds, so who knows what's going on, those updates given by the bank on their website don't explain much.

Personally, I think it would be better if nobody opted out, so all the funds can be transferred to Qenta in one single transaction, and then from Qenta we can all take our money to another financial institution.

I guess for now all that we can do is wait until.....
Well it's very confusing and EPB certainly aren't helping with their updates which don't identify the current problems.
If we don't know the problems it's difficult for customers to know where to focus their attention on getting their funds back.

I received a reply from Novo Bank's complaint email service. Basically a holding email which looks fairly standard - "we're looking in to the issue". I doubt I will hear anything else.
 
Well it's very confusing and EPB certainly aren't helping with their updates which don't identify the current problems.
If we don't know the problems it's difficult for customers to know where to focus their attention on getting their funds back.

I received a reply from Novo Bank's complaint email service. Basically a holding email which looks fairly standard - "we're looking in to the issue". I doubt I will hear anything else.
I also received an answer from them...
1683692568146.webp
 
@Pschiff no news? You’ve gone quiet and so has the bank and Quenta. This is a bad joke. What is going on? Customers won’t have any money to opt-in or out if we continue like this. It’s been a year. Can we have an update and a real definitive date as to when customers will get their money back, if any is left.
Thank you

I got a reply from the bank saying that all negative interest/balance would not be deducted as wire transfer for opt out has been made beforehand. So I guess the negative interest only applies to accounts that have decided to opt in. Still an absolute robbery if you ask me.
 
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I opted out because I need my money

@Pschiff no news? You’ve gone quiet and so has the bank and Quenta. This is a bad joke. What is going on? Customers won’t have any money to opt-in or out if we continue like this. It’s been a year. Can we have an update and a real definitive date as to when customers will get their money back, if any is left.
Thank you

I got a reply from the bank saying that all negative interest/balance would not be deducted as wire transfer for opt out has been made beforehand. So I guess the negative interest only applies to accounts that have decided to opt in. Still an absolute robbery if you ask me.

It's difficult to know what to believe from EPB . They seem to change their mind from one week to another.

A few months back they said they were all ready to send out wire transfers just as soon as they were given the go-ahead. But clearly they weren't ready given the software situation !

Customers have been badly treated in terms of information flow. It's only @Pschiff that has kept us informed of events.

Now we don't know if it's just the software problem that is holding things up and no idea of how long this is going to take. I think EPB need to communicate better with customers. We have suffered enough over 11 months!
 
Qetna, which includes many former members of EPB bank's staff, are working as fast as they can. The hold up is the Receiver who is not working as fast to resolve the technical issues that still remain that are required to process customer wires (issues with Eastnet) and complete the sale to Qetna. It's very frustrating, but there is not much anyone can do. Unfortunately, the receiver works on his own time table.
 
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Qetna, which includes many former members of EPB bank's staff, are working as fast as they can. The hold up is the Receiver who is not working as fast to resolve the technical issues that still remain that are required to process customer wires (issues with Eastnet) and complete the sale to Qetna. It's very frustrating, but there is not much anyone can do. Unfortunately, the receiver works on his own time table.

So are Quenta also processing the wire transfers for OPT OUT customers?
 
So are Quenta also processing the wire transfers for OPT OUT customers?
Yes, they are working on it. They processed all of the original wiring instructions that were never acted on due to the Portugese government freeze. But they have no actually authority at the bank. But they are doing all they can to help. The problem is there is a lot of stuff that only the Receiver can do, and he is taking a long time to get that stuff done.
 
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