Chase Bank Took $2,500 Deposit for Disabled Oregon Man, Then Wouldn't Give it Back

by Mike Rogoway

When Jeanne Tindall went to the bank with $2,500 in pandemic relief funds on behalf of her disabled ward last October, she envisioned him someday using the money to pay for future care, or maybe for therapeutic horseback rides.

Tindall has been legal guardian to the Oregon man, named Stephen, since the late 1980s. He is 46 and lives in a group foster home near Portland because he has a cognitive disability and cannot care for himself. So Tindall helps, managing his finances and make sure he’s getting what he needs.

The aid money could be helpful down the road, so Tindall took it to her local Chase Bank branch in Albany and put it into a guardianship account on Stephen’s behalf.

In November, Tindall went back to the bank to shift the money into an ABLE account, a special category of savings designed to enabled disabled people to set aside money without reducing their eligibility for government aid programs.

Chase refused to move the money, though, notifying Tindall that Stephen’s account had “insufficient funds.”

So Tindall spent three months seeking to pry the money back from Chase. She says the bank refused to hand it over, providing a variety or explanations ranging from fraud concerns to questions about who was authorized to access the account.

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Chase Bank took $2,500 deposit for disabled Oregon man, then wouldn’t give it back