Is there a reason your account was locked? Something personally incriminating? For instance sending funds directly to a darknet market, or online casino.
If not, perhaps hire a lawyer.
If not, perhaps hire a lawyer.
Fair enough. The email simply asked me to prove that I was a US resident by sending in my driver's license and proof of residence (like a utility bill). Which I promptly did. Then nothing.
For the record, I also opened my Bank of America app in Iran and BofA didn't seem to care at all. It's not like I was trying to trade, buy or sell - I literally just opened the app.
I opened a Coinbase account back in college ~6 years ago when they were giving $10 in Bitcoin to anyone who signed up with a .edu email address. I forgot about it until last summer, when I realized that amount was now worth around $160.
I didn't have access to my college email anymore, so having to provide proof of identity was reasonable; having the entire process take a month wasn't. They also do this particularly insidious thing where if they don't respond to your request for two weeks or so, they automatically close it as unresolved. They do automatically reopen it if you send another email, but that you have to do that in the first place is dumb.
It's an OFAC thing. If they allow money transactions from Cuban nationals they run the risk of pissing off the Treasury dept.
Many companies do it in a very ham-fisted way (flag anything with "Cuba" in the title, etc.).
If you want to use services that ignore what you can spend money on and what you can't, you literally have to use illegal services - no legitimate company in the western world is allowed to offer that.
Cash between friends is not illegal. Venmo, for lots of people including me, just replaces cash for paying your friends back. That's even their #1 example they have on their website for why you might use Venmo.
There is no agency or anyone in charge of asking what I'm spending the money on when I give my friend a $5 for lunch. If Venmo wants to replace that experience, they can't refuse the payment because they think I'm suspicious and expect to keep my business.
I understand the pressure they are under as a payment processor. But the alternative to Venmo to keep payment privacy intact is not illegal, it's just plain old cash.
Also, don't forget that above certain amounts cash between friends also needs to obey a bunch of reporting rules and can not be entirely private. Simply taking a briefcase of cash from your buddy and leaving it at that is illegal.
As the subtitle points out, neither Venmo or the Treasury Department shares the author’s sense of humour.
Minor fucking missing detail...