Euro Pacific bank is a scam

[Alpinist]

This all could have been avoided just respecting the banking regulations of PR.

https://thedeepdive.ca/peter-schiff-on-puerto-rico-suspending-euro-pacific-bank-i-just-wanted-out/
https://www.lawyerly.com.au/nine-drops-truth-defence-in-defamation-case-by-euro-pacific-bank-chief/

 

[Pschiff]

This all could have been avoided just respecting the banking regulations of PR.

https://thedeepdive.ca/peter-schiff-on-puerto-rico-suspending-euro-pacific-bank-i-just-wanted-out/
https://www.lawyerly.com.au/nine-drops-truth-defence-in-defamation-case-by-euro-pacific-bank-chief/

Not true. The bank did follow the rules. The bank didn't have a long history of non-compliance. The bank only operated in PR for a few years, and didn't even have its first audit until less than a year before the Commissioner made that statement. While the audit did reveal some mistakes, which is to be expected on an initial audit, the bank fully implemented all of OCIF's recommendations following that audit. So rather than having a long history of non-compliance, the bank had a short history of full compliance.

 

[Martin Everson]

Mark Anderson filed personal bankruptcy about 20 years ago. Lots of people file for bankruptcy. But Euro Pacific bank was not bankrupt. It had no debt. It was put into bankruptcy by OCIF despite its being the most solvent bank in Puerto Rico.

You never answered my questions on whether the OCIF knew or was required to know about the CEO being a bankrupt. But fact remains the CEO was a former bankrupt and was running the bank that was "put into bankruptcy" as you admit. The bank could have possibly been better financially managed in order to not allow OCIF to have to step in or issue warning in the past.

Don't blame me. I have nothing to do with the bank.

Nothing to do with bank? but then....

I was an investor in the bank. I put $10 million of capital in. I never worked at the bank. I was just on the board.

So you were investor and board member. Does not sound to me like you had nothing to do with the bank....


P.S In any case I hope people get their money back and this nightmare for them ends.

 

[Pschiff]

You never answered my questions on whether the OCIF knew or was required to know about the CEO being a bankrupt. But fact remains the CEO was a former bankrupt and was running the bank that was "put into bankruptcy" as you admit. The bank could have possibly been better financially managed in order to not allow OCIF to have to step in or issue warning in the past.



Nothing to do with bank? but then....



So you were investor and board member. Does not sound to me like you had nothing to do with the bank....


P.S In any case I hope people get their money back and this nightmare for them ends.

Yes, as a board member I was accountable to shareholders. Yet I also stepped up to make sure customers were always protected. I did that until OCIF took over the bank and assumed all responsibility for customers.

 

[btc100k]

Peter Schiff replies to a tweet admitting that the bank was in violation:

"Technically the bank didn't have enough excess capital, but I offered to put that additional capital in prior to, and after the bank was shut down. But the OCIF Commissioner refused to allow me, or anyone else to put any capital in."
--------------------
So all those times that Peter has said on this forum and on Twitter that the "bank did nothing wrong" was a lie. Wake up folks, stop believing his version of events. The OCIF doesn't shut down banks due to political beliefs. They shut them down due to incompetency.

 

[Feisty]

Peter Schiff replies to a tweet admitting that the bank was in violation:

"Technically the bank didn't have enough excess capital, but I offered to put that additional capital in prior to, and after the bank was shut down. But the OCIF Commissioner refused to allow me, or anyone else to put any capital in."
--------------------
So all those times that Peter has said on this forum and on Twitter that the "bank did nothing wrong" was a lie. Wake up folks, stop believing his version of events. The OCIF doesn't shut down banks due to political beliefs. They shut them down due to incompetency.

To be fare, it was a bit more than incompetency. It was also to get rid of a bank that was heavily in activities of tax evasion and money laundering. I would bet my money on a lot of customers selling information to 60 seconds or any other news/media company to hedge on the money lost with this bank. Its obvious this bank is not going to return customers money, especially any time soon, and if they do, it will be pennies. Schiff, OCIF and the Receiver are thieves and should be treated in no other way but that. 1 year has gone past, and they have not committed to absolutely anything what so ever, not 1 thing.

 

[Pschiff]

Peter Schiff replies to a tweet admitting that the bank was in violation:

"Technically the bank didn't have enough excess capital, but I offered to put that additional capital in prior to, and after the bank was shut down. But the OCIF Commissioner refused to allow me, or anyone else to put any capital in."
--------------------
So all those times that Peter has said on this forum and on Twitter that the "bank did nothing wrong" was a lie. Wake up folks, stop believing his version of events. The OCIF doesn't shut down banks due to political beliefs. They shut them down due to incompetency.

No, that was true. The bank did nothing wrong that it should have been shut down, or placed in receivership. We did not know the bank was under capitalized until the OCIF audit. OCIF gave us 90 days to come up with a plan to raised extra capital. I submitted a plan to sell the bank to Qenta, that included a $7 capital contribution by Qenta as a condition of closing. OCIF accepted my plan and the Commissioner told me there was no need to put in any more capital pending their background checks on the buyers. So I did exactly what OCIF asked me to do. No one at the bank was incompetent, prior to OCIF appointing a receiver. Euro Pacific was one of the best run offshore banks in Puerto Rico.

 

[Martin Everson]

We did not know the bank was under capitalized until the OCIF audit. OCIF gave us 90 days to come up with a plan to raised extra capital.

So your admitting the bank was under capitalized and the bank management did not know?

It should not take an OCIF audit to discover this. This is gross incompetence on behalf of the bank. This is what I said about bank not being well financially managed.

 

[Pschiff]

Not true, the bank moved from SVG to PR. Based on SVG law, the bank was not under-capitalized. There was a different rule in PR that we did not understand until after the auditors pointed it out. The rules were written for banks that made loans. My bank made no loans. SVG regulations recognized the difference. Puerto Rico did not. But when the bank was told it didn't have enough capital, OCIF just asked us to present a plan to raise more, which is exactly what was done. There was no gross incompetence. The bank held over 100% of deposits on hand in cash. What other bank is that sound? The bank could have redeemed 100% of deposits in full in a single day if it had to.

To be fare, it was a bit more than incompetency. It was also to get rid of a bank that was heavily in activities of tax evasion and money laundering. I would bet my money on a lot of customers selling information to 60 seconds or any other news/media company to hedge on the money lost with this bank. Its obvious this bank is not going to return customers money, especially any time soon, and if they do, it will be pennies. Schiff, OCIF and the Receiver are thieves and should be treated in no other way but that. 1 year has gone past, and they have not committed to absolutely anything what so ever, not 1 thing.

The bank was not involved in tax evasion or money laundering at all. Anyone on this board who actually had an account can attest that the bank's compliance was over the top.. The US government investigated over 2,000 EP bank account, and almost 1 million records, and did not find a single example of tax evasion or money laundering. I think its safe to say there was less money laundering or tax evasion going on at my bank than almost any other bank in the world. Also if customers lose any money its OCIF's fault, or the receiver. None of it is my fault. When OCIF took the bank away from me, and gave control to the receiver, there was more than enough cash on any to repay all depositors and any other creditors. Had it been up to me I would have return all the money a year ago. In fact, if it were up to me, I would have sold the bank. But it wasn't up to me. The OCIF Commissioner made all the decisions. So blame her if you want, but don't blame me. I lost $25 million due to her decisions. Far more than any bank customer.

 

[btc100k]

US government investigated over 2,000 EP bank account, and almost 1 million records, and did not find a single example of tax evasion or money laundering. I think its safe to say there was less money laundering or tax evasion going on at my bank than almost any other bank in the world. Also if customers lose any money its OCIF's fault, or the receiver. None of it is my fault.

What about the UK government? They arrested some of your customers for tax evasion.

If you guys don't get 100% of your money back, you should sue Peter Schiff. If I were in your shoes, I would have sued him a year ago. He is at fault and he was bragging about his networth being over 100 million so he certainly has the finances to make you guys whole. Don't let him scare you into thinking you can't sue him. You certainly can.

 

[Pschiff]

What about the UK government? They arrested some of your customers for tax evasion.

If you guys don't get 100% of your money back, you should sue Peter Schiff. If I were in your shoes, I would have sued him a year ago. He is at fault and he was bragging about his networth being over 100 million so he certainly has the finances to make you guys whole. Don't let him scare you into thinking you can't sue him. You certainly can.

There is no confirmation that any of my bank's customers were arrested by the UK. There was one article written that two men in the UK were arrested, and that their arrests related tot the investigation of my bank's customers. But their names were not mentioned, and the article did not read that they were in fact customers of the bank. So we have no idea. Also, if they were customers, they may have been among those customers whose accounts were closed by the bank for suspicious activity. In any event ,that article was five months ago. There have been no articles since about what happened to them. So they may not have even been charged with any crimes, let alone convicted. But even if they do get convicted of something, and they did have accounts at my bank, so what? The bank had over 10,000 customers. If it turns out that two of those customers committed crimes, what does that have to do with my bank, if the bank did nothing to help them, and they did nothing suspicious with their accounts? I'm sure they had accounts at other banks too that had no idea they were criminals. What if they rented apartments. Does that mean their landlords did something wrong. What about the people who own the grocery store where they buy food. Or the owner of the stores they buy their clothing. Is anyone who provided any service to them also guilty of something?

Also, why don't you encourage people to sue OCIF? There is a much better case there. Plus, they can win putative damages, that will likely be much larger than actually damages. Suing me is a waste of time and money. The official reason the bank was closed was insufficient capital. The capital was insufficient due to the bank having lost money as a result of being falsely accused of money laundering and tax evasion. I lost 25 million myself. So there was nothing I did wrong, and no way for a creditors who lose money to pierce the corporate vail to sue me personally. In fact, I don't think there is any basis to sue the bank, let alone me. But even if a judgement could be won against the bank, I doubt the bank will have any funds left to pay it.

 

[Feisty]

Come on @Pschiff, don’t try to deny it. You know it, the customers know it, and the UK government knows you have a lot of tax evaders and money laundering at your bank, especially tax evaders from Europe. Your bank even helped customers with the setup as long as they moved their funds to your bank. I wouldn’t be surprised if customers shared this information with 60 seconds to recover the funds lost from this useless inexistent liquidation. I most probably would do the same if that helps recover lost funds from your useless bank.

The uk customers did not comit any other crime except for evading taxes. Don’t change the subject. The bank new this and did nothing as long as they were not committing any crime in Puerto Rico. You have hundreds of customers who are evading tax. Thats a fact and thats why they closed your bank as well as the inefficient funds.

insufficient funds sorry

 

[spartan7510]

Come on @Pschiff, don’t try to deny it. You know it, the customers know it, and the UK government knows you have a lot of tax evaders and money laundering at your bank, especially tax evaders from Europe. Your bank even helped customers with the setup as long as they moved their funds to your bank. I wouldn’t be surprised if customers shared this information with 60 seconds to recover the funds lost from this useless inexistent liquidation. I most probably would do the same if that helps recover lost funds from your useless bank.

The uk customers did not comit any other crime except for evading taxes. Don’t change the subject. The bank new this and did nothing as long as they were not committing any crime in Puerto Rico. You have hundreds of customers who are evading tax. Thats a fact and thats why they closed your bank as well as the inefficient funds.

insufficient funds sorry

Youve come on here and done nothing but hate on Peter Schiff. You and that Btc100K clown. If you never diverisfied your portfolio and put everything into EPB, you only have yourself to blame for your complete loss. This is the only place where we have actually got proper updates rather than been left in the dark for the past 10 months and you 2 clowns are messing that up for everbody else by continually blaming Peter Schiff and spewing vile hatred. So please shut up and be part of the solution rather than living in the past. If you have a way to sue a shareholder in a limited liability company, then please by all means share how you intend to do this.

There were some news articles about a raid on one of the alledged EPB customers, but to generalize like you have done inferring EPB facilitated tax evasion like HSBC is complete and utter crap. EPB had robust process on forms to complete for checks for compliance, I remember these and they were PITA to the point where I actually was considering closing my account down. A scam bank does not open up and stay open for better part of 10 years before they are closed down by regulator with an agenda. It is clear that EPB management/shareholders opted for path of least resistance to get customer money back, but regulators chose a way making it more difficult. I do think Peter should have considered this when he opted to agree to the OCIF terms - ie - "we presented x to return customer funds, OCIF opted for y. If funds not returned within 6 months then OCIF waiver any immunity from legal recourse by EPB" for example.

You are holding a corrupt government regulator from a 3rd world nation in high regard, but yet blaming everything on Schiff. All the allegations on what EPB has done wrong are on the internet, all the news articles, court documents, ect. If Schiff and co were responsible for facilitating money laundering and tax evasion, dont you think they would be in prison by now?

So again, me like may of other posters on the forum who have been on here for a while are getting tired of listening to your allegations, come up with a solution and perhaps we may take you seriously.

 

[Feisty]

Yes, I hate Mr schiff because I have lost a lot of money in this bank. I say lost, because up to this day I have not recovered a single penny of it. And I will continue to spew crap in this forum, as you call it, whiles this person continues to not provide solutions but more crap to support his case and increase his ego. He has provided nothing, no solution, no result, nothingggggg. Absolutely nothing, but blaming everyone else, and in turn has convinced people like you that he is doing the right thing because he is providing information in thos forum. Come on wake up! Really???? Is that the way to go??? If he was anything near legit, he would not be providing info with sugar on top in a bloody forum, he would be providing this information through the banks legit communication channels (especially after so many complaints) Remember not all customers are aware of this forum. So whiles I am here and the forum allows me to be here, every time I here Mr Schiff spew excuse after excuse I will respond to his crap. I will respond because I as a customer believe he is a lier and a scam. He should have shut the bank and stopped blaming everyone for this bad ordeal. In relation to tax evasion, I will 100% blame him for being a bank that has helped customers evade tax. Of course I will, because I am one of those customers. Sadly not because I wanted to. Thats something, as you say I will have to live with, and I have my own reasons why I had to do it, and for obvious reasons I will not share in a public forum. I have bared the fines from my home country, and as you say I should blame myself for it. But I also think that Mr Schiff is also too blame or even more to blame because like me there are other customers and I as other customers (this is a fact) because other friends opened accounts too, were NEVER EVER EVER rejected to open the account. On the contrary, we were more invited to open an account knowing we were evading taxes in our home country. Not only that we were offered the services through external partners to setup an offshore company and everything to do with the setup and then consequently a bank account. We have also been always reassured this was legal and this was ok. Our ignorance at the time was 100%, but we did think we were legally opening an account as the bank reassured us time and time again. So I blame Mr Schiff, his colleagues Anderaon, Andrew Murry or what ever his name was and the whole bank because they took advantage of a lot of us as customers when we opened an account through external partners. So to come here, to this forum and pretend EPB bank was not helping customers evade taxes is absolute crap. As I said before, I don’t blame customers being angry. And yes I am to blame 100%. But this guy @Pschiff is the biggest liar I know after reading about him. This guy is obsessed with not paying taxes, thats why they inprisoned his father. This guy has taken advantage of all of us, all customers for opening a bank account in Puerto Rico and evading taxes in our home countries.
Yes, I was and most probably still am naive and yes I am to blame, and yes its my problem, and no I won’t sue a shareholder. But what I can do is to tell the truth about the bank, Mr Schiff and if possible recover from my losses. I’m all for a solution @spartan7510 100%. But I’m not all for listening to this thief and liar Mr Schiff. Put it how you like @spartan7510, the reality is more than 1 year has gone past and we have advanced absolutely nothing, and it kills me to hear people like you defend this guy. Mr Schiff has provided zero information, only noise. And yes I do hope he goes to prison like his father and I do hope he takes responsibility for his bank as I will do for evading taxes. And by the way I would prefer @spartan7510 if you did not call me a clown. I have not insulted you. I could be stupid, naive, I’m most probably have only to blame for my wrong actions, as many other customers. But Mr Schiff has too blame even more, because even after not closing the bank on time and returning money to customers, he still has the balls to come here and blame everyone and pretend his bank did not commit any ilegal actions. Come on… really?? This bank was the only bank in the world making it dead easy to open a bank account online and evade taxes in Australia, Europe and many other places. It was the only real cheap option! And Mr Schiff new exactly what he was doing. Like his father, he thought he could take his war against the system and powers above.
I think I’ve said enough, most probably too much. But come on, this guy is the biggest con man alive, opening a bank in one of the most corrupt countries.
Solutions? Be my guest @spartan7510. Only solution I have now is to wait, and if the waiting gets too long, I will make sure 60 seconds or anyone else who wants this story get their part 2 of this story with facts, phone calls and everything they need to make sure I hedge my losses and Mr Schiff receives and accepts part of his responsibility.

 

[spartan7510]

Yes, I hate Mr schiff because I have lost a lot of money in this bank. I say lost, because up to this day I have not recovered a single penny of it. And I will continue to spew crap in this forum, as you call it, whiles this person continues to not provide solutions but more crap to support his case and increase his ego. He has provided nothing, no solution, no result, nothingggggg. Absolutely nothing, but blaming everyone else, and in turn has convinced people like you that he is doing the right thing because he is providing information in thos forum. Come on wake up! Really???? Is that the way to go??? If he was anything near legit, he would not be providing info with sugar on top in a bloody forum, he would be providing this information through the banks legit communication channels (especially after so many complaints) Remember not all customers are aware of this forum. So whiles I am here and the forum allows me to be here, every time I here Mr Schiff spew excuse after excuse I will respond to his crap. I will respond because I as a customer believe he is a lier and a scam. He should have shut the bank and stopped blaming everyone for this bad ordeal. In relation to tax evasion, I will 100% blame him for being a bank that has helped customers evade tax. Of course I will, because I am one of those customers. Sadly not because I wanted to. Thats something, as you say I will have to live with, and I have my own reasons why I had to do it, and for obvious reasons I will not share in a public forum. I have bared the fines from my home country, and as you say I should blame myself for it. But I also think that Mr Schiff is also too blame or even more to blame because like me there are other customers and I as other customers (this is a fact) because other friends opened accounts too, were NEVER EVER EVER rejected to open the account. On the contrary, we were more invited to open an account knowing we were evading taxes in our home country. Not only that we were offered the services through external partners to setup an offshore company and everything to do with the setup and then consequently a bank account. We have also been always reassured this was legal and this was ok. Our ignorance at the time was 100%, but we did think we were legally opening an account as the bank reassured us time and time again. So I blame Mr Schiff, his colleagues Anderaon, Andrew Murry or what ever his name was and the whole bank because they took advantage of a lot of us as customers when we opened an account through external partners. So to come here, to this forum and pretend EPB bank was not helping customers evade taxes is absolute crap. As I said before, I don’t blame customers being angry. And yes I am to blame 100%. But this guy @Pschiff is the biggest liar I know after reading about him. This guy is obsessed with not paying taxes, thats why they inprisoned his father. This guy has taken advantage of all of us, all customers for opening a bank account in Puerto Rico and evading taxes in our home countries.
Yes, I was and most probably still am naive and yes I am to blame, and yes its my problem, and no I won’t sue a shareholder. But what I can do is to tell the truth about the bank, Mr Schiff and if possible recover from my losses. I’m all for a solution @spartan7510 100%. But I’m not all for listening to this thief and liar Mr Schiff. Put it how you like @spartan7510, the reality is more than 1 year has gone past and we have advanced absolutely nothing, and it kills me to hear people like you defend this guy. Mr Schiff has provided zero information, only noise. And yes I do hope he goes to prison like his father and I do hope he takes responsibility for his bank as I will do for evading taxes. And by the way I would prefer @spartan7510 if you did not call me a clown. I have not insulted you. I could be stupid, naive, I’m most probably have only to blame for my wrong actions, as many other customers. But Mr Schiff has too blame even more, because even after not closing the bank on time and returning money to customers, he still has the balls to come here and blame everyone and pretend his bank did not commit any ilegal actions. Come on… really?? This bank was the only bank in the world making it dead easy to open a bank account online and evade taxes in Australia, Europe and many other places. It was the only real cheap option! And Mr Schiff new exactly what he was doing. Like his father, he thought he could take his war against the system and powers above.
I think I’ve said enough, most probably too much. But come on, this guy is the biggest con man alive, opening a bank in one of the most corrupt countries.
Solutions? Be my guest @spartan7510. Only solution I have now is to wait, and if the waiting gets too long, I will make sure 60 seconds or anyone else who wants this story get their part 2 of this story with facts, phone calls and everything they need to make sure I hedge my losses and Mr Schiff receives and accepts part of his responsibility.

Let me repeat, you are the new guy on here, mouthing it off and comprimising updates provided to us the past couple of months by Peter himself that we get no where else. Peter is under no obligation to provide updates, nor does he have to put up with your BS and vitriol hatred. At any point he could go dark and say he has had enough of your abuse and leave us all hanging in the balance. Get that through your thick demented skull.

Clearly you have not read all the post on this forum nor understood the agreement with OCIF where Peter cannot have direct involvement in the liquidation process. This is up to the OCIF appointed reciever and OCIF. No sugar coating, just process as it stands.

You have no room to lodge your complaint or voice your hatred on here, you were breaking the rules, breaking the law and using the bank to commit acts of tax evasion (by your own admission), screwing it up for legitimate investors like me (with my GLD investment account), so we should blame customers like you for falsifying compliance documents for what you have done abusing the banking service. Very rich indeed for you to comment on here. On this basis I have no sympathy for you.

 

[Martin Everson]

Ok guys chill out. Even if you don't agree with what someone says they still have the right to say it. Personal insults are not required. I will be handing out warnings if it continues. So keep emotions in check please.

 

[orion7352]

Let me repeat, you are the new guy on here, mouthing it off and comprimising updates provided to us the past couple of months by Peter himself that we get no where else. Peter is under no obligation to provide updates, nor does he have to put up with your BS and vitriol hatred. At any point he could go dark and say he has had enough of your abuse and leave us all hanging in the balance. Get that through your thick demented skull.

Clearly you have not read all the post on this forum nor understood the agreement with OCIF where Peter cannot have direct involvement in the liquidation process. This is up to the OCIF appointed reciever and OCIF. No sugar coating, just process as it stands.

You have no room to lodge your complaint or voice your hatred on here, you were breaking the rules, breaking the law and using the bank to commit acts of tax evasion (by your own admission), screwing it up for legitimate investors like me (with my GLD investment account), so we should blame customers like you for falsifying complaince documents for what you have done abusing the banking service. Very rich indeed for you to comment on here. On this basis I have

Let me repeat, you are the new guy on here, mouthing it off and comprimising updates provided to us the past couple of months by Peter himself that we get no where else. Peter is under no obligation to provide updates, nor does he have to put up with your BS and vitriol hatred. At any point he could go dark and say he has had enough of your abuse and leave us all hanging in the balance. Get that through your thick demented skull.

Clearly you have not read all the post on this forum nor understood the agreement with OCIF where Peter cannot have direct involvement in the liquidation process. This is up to the OCIF appointed reciever and OCIF. No sugar coating, just process as it stands.

You have no room to lodge your complaint or voice your hatred on here, you were breaking the rules, breaking the law and using the bank to commit acts of tax evasion (by your own admission), screwing it up for legitimate investors like me (with my GLD investment account), so we should blame customers like you for falsifying complaince documents for what you have done abusing the banking service. Very rich indeed for you to comment on here. On this basis I have no sympathy for you.

Emotions are running high. It's been very stressful for a lot of customers. Feisty is letting off some steam. OK maybe we might disagree with some of what he has said but we have to look forward and try to work together to get our money back. Fighting each other here serves no purpose.

We are still a long way from getting our money back, especially opt-out customers.
Unfortunately it's taking time to secure legal representation for customers. Things seem to work slowly in Puerto Rico.

 

[Sols]

As @Martin Everson so eloquently put it: chill out. Debate topics on their merits. Refrain from crude language. Posts deleted, warnings handed out.

If you find yourself writing something in anger, leave it as a draft, take a step back, and come back to it later. Let cooler heads prevail.

 

[Feisty]

Hi @spartan7510 I did not insult you. All of my compliance was correct. I can’t even think about why anyone would bank with EPB, if it isn’t to avoid taxes, launder or hide money. All those banks in the world and you so intelligently picked EPB for your legitimate business. And you call me dumb.
As mentioned a couple of times I don’t think @Pschiff is providing any updates. We are here 1 year later in the same position and he is only trying to protect his brand. If he goes dark or not dark it won’t make a difference. We’re still in the same position.

 

[Martin Everson]

Hi @spartan7510 I did not insult you. All of my compliance was correct. I can’t even think about why anyone would bank with EPB, if it isn’t to avoid taxes, launder or hide money. All those banks in the world and you so intelligently picked EPB for your legitimate business. And you call me dumb.
As mentioned a couple of times I don’t think @Pschiff is providing any updates. We are here 1 year later in the same position and he is only trying to protect his brand. If he goes dark or not dark it won’t make a difference. We’re still in the same position.

Ok you made your point.

Let's hope you get your money back at some point.