A really bizarre thing happened yesterday afternoon when I woke up (sick brag ldo).

By now it’s fairly old news, but I woke up to an email from QuickTender in my inbox.  Here’s the copy/paste:

Dear Aaron Wilt

We are writing to give you an update on the status of your QuickTender account balance.

Contrary to some speculation in the forums, certain funds of QuickTender have indeed been subject to a seizure order by the US authorities. We hope to advise those affected in the near future on the status of these funds. The funds were held with our processor, ChargeStream Ltdand the action is a matter that is in the public domain.

Whilst not all of our funds are affected, a significant amount has been. QuickTender is a reputable organisation, and we wish to ensure so far as we can that our account holders do not lose their funds in our care.

We are looking at how we can release funds to our account holders as soon as possible, however because of current restrictions we are unable to transmit any funds in USD.

In order for customers to have their balances refunded, at present they will need to have a currency account in Euros as we currently cannot make any payments into any USD denominated accounts. If you do not have an account in Euros we would urge you to obtain one in order to receive your funds.

At the end of this week QuickTender aims to advise further on enabling withdrawal of funds from your QuickTender Account.

Please bear with us in these difficult times as we endeavour to resolve the situation despite the severe limitations we face.

QuickTender Support TEam

Maybe I’m just being an ego maniac, but I’m pretty sure that my work investigating them was at least part of what spawned this email.  Look at this part:

“Contrary to some speculation in the forums, certain funds of QuickTender have indeed been subject to a seizure order by the US authorities.”

The language used in this quote is quite interesting and misleading.  I usually like to give people the benefit of doubt, but in times like these I have to be skeptical of everyone. It appears they may be trying to disprove or down play what I was the first to report, which was Maryland US Attorney Richard Kay telling me that the paperwork for the warrants has begun, but it would be 4-6 months before the US government actually seizes the 2 accounts in the Netherlands.  As a result of this delay, there would likely be no money left in the account by the time the US authorities got there which meant the scenario was likely that quicktender would withdraw all the money and fade away.

In reality, the money that was seized was done so by the U.S. Secret Service as I also reported from my conversation with Jim Eastman. The U.S. Secret Service intercepted money that was in transit to the players through the correspondent bank in NYC***.  It appears to me quicktender is trying to confuse you through their tricky language.  They try to say “yes, we did have money seized” (which is true, and I’ve reported as such) however I believe they are may be trying to use this to discredit what I’ve also previously reported and confirmed again today: The Maryland ICE/HSI does not currently have control over quicktender bank accounts in the Netherlands.  This mess is very confusing, so don’t be fooled.

***I believe, but I cannot confirm, their intermediary bank is a  Deutsche Bank in NYC ABA#021001033.  I believe it’s this bank as it’s listed as the sender DBTCO AMERICAS NYC on my bank wires received from quicktender.com

It’s not all bad news though.  In fact I think it’s a good sign we’ve heard anything from quicktender.  This part is especially hopeful:

We are looking at how we can release funds to our account holders as soon as possible, however because of current restrictions we are unable to transmit any funds in USD.

In order for customers to have their balances refunded, at present they will need to have a currency account in Euros as we currently cannot make any payments into any USD denominated accounts. If you do not have an account in Euros we would urge you to obtain one in order to receive your funds.

I think it makes perfect sense that they cannot send money in USD.  As I understand it, any foreign transfers in USD coming into the country must pass through the Federal Reserve bank, which would make it very easy to seize that money.  Sending the money in Euros might allow for an easier transfer.

At the end of this week QuickTender aims to advise further on enabling withdrawal of funds from your QuickTender Account.

Please bear with us in these difficult times as we endeavour to resolve the situation despite the severe limitations we face.

QuickTender Support TEam

I hope this is true, I will certainly be awaiting any news.  Maybe we will be pleasantly surprised.