We are a newly formed limited liability It company in Belgium: the two Austalian shareholders and Dutch manager. To operate business we have opened account in AXA bank in Brussels.
After the set up formalities were completed the account manager, Mr Benoit M. (name available upon request) personally confirmed to the shareholders that all account administration is completed and that account is operational.
For a while we have operated account to pay first invoices and to receive first payments
To pay set up costs the share holders have credited the new entity with pretty solid amount of money, mostly from their Forex accounts.
Past Friday while trying to complete a payment of urgent invoices we have discovered that account is blocked and the money is unavailable. We have received no notification that account is going to be blocked.
The account manager, same person who suggested that it "might" have happened because the copy of one of the shareholders passport is missing in the account administration. The problem here is that shareholder in question is Austalian citizen, resides in Australia, has no intention to travel abroad and has no access to business account of the company. According to the Australian law the valid drivers licence which was present in the accounting file is acceptable proof of identity; the Belgian authorities and public notary who registered a company also accepted that.
We have asked a company lawyer for advice: he confirmed that it is illegal in Belgium to arbitrary block the accounts unless there is a warrant from prosecutors office.
Attempts to explain that to the account manager were not successful; he claimed that bank has own "internal rules". Money on the account is still unavailable at the moment and all bank cards are cancelled too.
Above all help desk of the bank and head office are completely unavailable by phone to answer any inquiries or provide any explanation.
We understand that it is a weekend yet the whole situation is extremely strange.
I will post updates about the situation here.
Ng
Brussels
Belgium
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