Filed 8/18/08, pro se, in Idaho

[tunskit]

We filed Chapter 7 yesterday. We couldn't afford an attorney, so we did it ourselves. DH is employed FT, and I'm self-employed. Our case is no asset, and we have no reaffirmation agreements or anything like that. It should be reasonably straightforward. I hope.

The clerk complimented me on the neatness of my paperwork, so maybe I did something right. Of course, I won't know if I goofed up on something until the 341 meeting.

Idaho does it differently than I expected. All cases have to be electronically filed, so the clerk scanned in our papers. We had to wait about 30 minutes for her to do that, but when she'd finished, she gave us our case number, the contact info for our assigned trustee, our judge, and even our 341 meeting--Sept. 25th.

I just hope everything goes smoothly at the 341. I'm a little concerned I might have done something wrong on the Schedule D. We had a personal loan with a finance company, secured by a DVD player and a TV. Those items are typically exempt, but since they secured the loan, I'm not sure if they'll qualify as exempt. I marked the box that they were exempt on our Statement of Intentions, but I don't know if that's right. If not, we have no problem surrendering the items.


I did find out something that might help other pro se filers. I'm not certain if it's just Idaho, but here you have to file the Statement of Domestic Obligations even if you have $0 obligations. We hadn't included it, because it was n/a, but the clerk gave us the paper, and we filled it out right there.


I'm nervous about the amount of debt we had--$240K, and no house--but $99,999 of that is for a wire transfer our bank authorized from our account. We had nothing to do with it, but they wouldn't remove the charge or even investigate. We marked that as disputed. Another $45K is student loan, so that might put us below the theoretical $100K threshold that could trigger the involvement of a US Trustee. I know it's not the end of the world to get a US Trustee, but I am not looking forward to finding all that paperwork if he requests months or years of items. We were honest and will continue to be, so it should be okay, even if something comes up.

[JRScott]

What was the bank transfer for? When was it made?

You do realize that student loans cannot be discharged?

So long as you are honest you should be okay . You generally will get a letter 1 to 2 weeks before the 341 if the Trustee requires additional paperwork for the meeting.

[tunskit]

The bank transfer was made in May '08, and I have no idea what it was for. I can't get any answers from the bank. It's an account through a bank based in CT. I had to open the account to get my student aid disbursement through Eastern Michigan University (attending online), but I never used the account except to transfer the student aid money to my "real" account. KWIM? One day, I got an email saying I was $100K overdrawn. WTF? I tried getting answers, but no one could explain it. The closest I came to an answer was one CSR told me it looked like a wire transfer, but she couldn't trace it to a recipient. Since the bank is across the country, it's not like I can go into a local branch. We were already on the edge of filing, but that pushed us over. We could not afford to pay off a $100K we didn't incur.

I do know the student loans can't be discharged. Thanks for pointing that out, though. I'd have been upset if I hadn't known that. They are currently in deferment while we finish school, so I'll worry about those payments later, after our degrees lead to better jobs.

Thanks!

[bcvw]

A $100K fraudulent wire transfer and you're just basically saying "Oh well."?

I'd be calling the FBI or US Treasury if I were you. They'd be very interested in this sort of thing.

[JRScott]

Well one thing is for certain the Trustee is going to want to know what happened to that 99k.

Have you discussed this wire transfer with a lawyer, and what did they say about it?

[duplantisjj]

Yeah, I agree with others. That Trustee is gonna have a big question mark about the $99K money transfer. And not having anything from the bank other than a bill for $99K doesn't help your case. I would think this will need to be resolved one way or another before they'll allow a discharge.

[b_girl]

I think if I were you, I would hire an attorney to help you fight this fight....JMHO. You sound like you really do have your hands full with this $99k issue....

[No Gravy]

We could not afford to pay off a $100K we didn't incur.

Nor should you. Wow, the bank's attitude is surprising, especially for that amount! Have you considered filing a compliant with the FTC and your local police dept?

[tunskit]

I guess I'm an idiot, but I never even considered filing a complaint with anyone else. It just never occurred to me. Duh!

I'm more confused than ever now. When I woke up, there was an email from the bank. I've gotten them several times in the past few months, usually three or four times per week. I've just been deleting them, but today, I noticed it listed a specific amount:


You were previously notified of the overdraft situation of your Eagle OneAccount. Your current overdraft amount is 1,966.29. A continued negative balance may delay the availability of future deposits and have other long-term consequences. If you do not resolve the status of your overdrawn account, you will be reported to ChexSystems and TeleCheck.


I wouldn't have been overdrawn if not for that wire transfer, but I'm more concerned with figuring out what happened with that. I called the bank, and no one was there, except a general CSR. She told me to call back tomorrow (gave me contact info) and speak to some manager. When she looked at the account, she couldn't find the $100K debit anywhere in the records. I asked her if that meant that someone finally took care of it? She said probably. I was happy to hear that, but when I logged in to the online access, it said I was $101,965.29 overdrawn. Argh!

I'm hoping that maybe the rude letter I sent to them two weeks ago finally reached someone who listened, investigated, and realized I didn't initiate any kind of transfer. Maybe the online system just hasn't caught up. I really don't know. As long as it doesn't slow down my BK, I don't care at this point. I'm tired of dealing with the mess, which is why I put it on the BK in the first place. I'm not nearly so blase about the situation as some of you seem to think, believe me.

[tunskit]

A $100K fraudulent wire transfer and you're just basically saying "Oh well."?

I'd be calling the FBI or US Treasury if I were you. They'd be very interested in this sort of thing.

I don't even know if it was a wire transfer. That's just what one employee told me it kind of looked like, but didn't have the recipient details--which should have meant it didn't go through. So why is there a debit on the account? No one seems to know.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Tunskit, keep in touch with the bank and start documenting all your contact: date, time, people you spoke with, what they said. Add to this the weird paperwork you've been getting, and the fact that you are trying to find out how to report it as a criminal matter to the correct law enforcement agency...

This may not win an objection from the trustee, but this level of documentation and proof *alone* demonstrates pretty clearly that the transaction is dubious no matter which way you look at it, and that it was probably not made by you. Keep up with trying to report the fraud, though, don't let that slide.

That, and I can assure you that the reason no one there at the bank knows anything about it is because they do not currently see it as anything but your problem. When you report this -- say, to the FBI -- and the law enforcement folks start looking into it, they will hop right to it, and you'll be amazed at just how quickly they can determine who originated the transfer, why, to whom, and by what means (wire? check? whatever). They just need their li'l apple tree shook, is what it comes down to.

Good luck!!!