Can someone tell me why epass closed?

[fris]

The bank they use/used is a solid bank.

and visa, didnt really have to do any support for the cards, since epass ran their own call center, and no chargebacks were available on the cards, so its a win win for visa, and the bank has no problems paying out.

so what went wrong?

no this is not a troll post, I want some positive input from anyone who replies why they think it closed.

Curiousity killed the cat.

[Robbie]

I don't know shit...but it almost seems like that St. Kitts bank wants to take it over for themselves and put epass out of business (which seems to be what happened more or less)

[Jdoughs]

I think they had to prove identities for their accounts. I think an audit or inspection happened and they had XX days to show compliance. When they didn't, the cards were turned off by the bank while they looked for a solution. I imagine the bank tried to deal with epassporte and have them provide answers, and after a couple weeks gave up (which we can understand, impossible to deal with epass, or even contact them.).

Soon as the bank took over we were told we would see access and some users would have to verify, basically they need to get their ducks in a row and show that there is only a small ratio of nonverified accounts.

Of course, just speculation and I'm no banker.

[Agent 488]

probably ten different factors that grew into a big clusterfuck.

[Tjeezers]

option 1, gamble and poker money
option 2, they refused to communicate with VISA about regulations and stuff, they turned a blind eye
option 3, epass lost a lot of revenue before the shit hits the fan cause of a decline in sales world wide since crisis. Decline cause people earned less, so automatically lesser revenue for epass
option 4, Chris toke a loan on all the wallet fundings and cant pay back ? ( this is just a speculation that comes to mind )

[iSpyCams]

My theories are:

1) falling out between Chris and Gregory possibly caused by:
2) the movie failing and wallet funds no longer being available as they were all invested in the movie

[chronig]

1. Losing 20 million on MiddleMan combined with
2. Extra attention focused on the company after the movie was released

[CYF]

ONE of the banks was standup, the other bank is allegedly owned by epass or epassporte's owners.

My theory is, that SKNANB does financial health verification of some sort on epass, saw that the other bank was in trouble, and pulled the plug. Possibly because the epass-owned bank funded the movies. The timing is just way too weird to be just a coincidence IMHO.

[gumdrop]

The money is motion....pictures:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2672832/

[Ron2k1]

Originally Posted by CYF

ONE of the banks was standup, the other bank is allegedly owned by epass or epassporte's owners.

My theory is, that SKNANB does financial health verification of some sort on epass, saw that the other bank was in trouble, and pulled the plug. Possibly because the epass-owned bank funded the movies. The timing is just way too weird to be just a coincidence IMHO.

Something like that, and for the rest I believe the story in this thread is pretty close to the truth https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=991050

In short:

Mallick wanted to control the funds himself without the St Kitts bank involved, he created the Wallet system with his own bank behind it. So they could invest the money in other projects like his movies.

[andrej_NDC]

Shouldn't someone like Chris have like $100mil or more in his bank account? So 20 for a movie shouldn't be that big of a deal for him. Of course, if he didn't blew his income on drugs and whores all the time.

[CYF]

Originally Posted by andrej_NDC

Shouldn't someone like Chris have like $100mil or more in his bank account? So 20 for a movie shouldn't be that big of a deal for him. Of course, if he didn't blew his income on drugs and whores all the time.

rich people don't risk their own money, they risk investor's money.

[signupdamnit]

Did Mansef/Brazzers ever do Epassporte payments? It seems the Secret Service was watching them.

http://www.xbiznewswire.com/view.php?id=118682

[gumdrop]

Originally Posted by andrej_NDC

Shouldn't someone like Chris have like $100mil or more in his bank account? So 20 for a movie shouldn't be that big of a deal for him. Of course, if he didn't blew his income on drugs and whores all the time.

The thing is he made more than one movie.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2672832/

And he's got another one cooking as well:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1644654/

[Alprazolam]

i'm sure that the gambling rake back processing had nothing to do with it?
no one noticed that? the guy who whacked himself? gambling industry.
come on people. lot's a things were probably the reason.

[Phoenix66]

Originally Posted by CYF

My theory is, that SKNANB does financial health verification of some sort on epass, saw that the other bank was in trouble, and pulled the plug. Possibly because the epass-owned bank funded the movies. The timing is just way too weird to be just a coincidence IMHO.

This does not make much sense. SKNANB only uses the funds that are already transferred from epass to them. They could not care less if epass is in trouble as long as money come into prepaid card accounts.

I'd say epass owners just decided they can let it drown as it was not already worth it to them. What I cannot understand, why they are not afraid of a legal responsibility.

[Agent 488]

[MasterM]

its was ; option 1, gamble and poker money

i am 100% sure it was that
and some others told me also

[fris]

Originally Posted by Ron2k1

Something like that, and for the rest I believe the story in this thread is pretty close to the truth https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=991050

In short:

Mallick wanted to control the funds himself without the St Kitts bank involved, he created the Wallet system with his own bank behind it. So they could invest the money in other projects like his movies.

if that is the case, since a lot of people had payout by default to be in wallet, if he had access to all thepeoples money, and used it for his own gain, which ultimately caused it to close, im not saying it is, but if in fact it is, its pretty low.

[troncarver]

Originally Posted by Tjeezers

option 1, gamble and poker money
option 2, they refused to communicate with VISA about regulations and stuff, they turned a blind eye
option 3, epass lost a lot of revenue before the shit hits the fan cause of a decline in sales world wide since crisis. Decline cause people earned less, so automatically lesser revenue for epass
option 4, Chris toke a loan on all the wallet fundings and cant pay back ? ( this is just a speculation that comes to mind )

i think its one of these, give or take, and maybe a combo, possible supersize me

[Ron2k1]

Originally Posted by fris

if that is the case, since a lot of people had payout by default to be in wallet, if he had access to all thepeoples money, and used it for his own gain, which ultimately caused it to close, im not saying it is, but if in fact it is, its pretty low.

Well the people behind it (like Mallick) did not take everything for their own gain, they kept a certain % of the funds in the bank (a common bank practice) and they could use a part of the rest to invest in other projects like the movie (and maybe even other things like real estate).

But now I huge part of the funds is gone, I'm pretty sure most of the wallet money will never be paid.

[fris]

that sucks, did enjoy the service while it lasted though, was a real saver.

[Kingfish]

Just speculation, but I think the bank got nervous that a lot of epass clients were using epass for money laundering and wide scale fraud operations. If you read what verification documents they are requesting vs what epass requested in the past for verification this seems to be the case. The bank wants certified copies, and an explanation of what you are using the funds in the account for. I know that fraudster that ripped me off used epass and every time they would close his account he would simply open a new one with phony verification documents he made with photoshop. Although it wasn?t intentional epass provided a safe harbor to a lot of crooks.

[Alprazolam]

most ego projects don't end well. i.e. movies about yourself funded with other peoples money.

if that is what happened.

[brassmonkey]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

baby pimp that's rare

[Argos88]

Originally Posted by CYF

ONE of the banks was standup, the other bank is allegedly owned by epass or epassporte's owners.

My theory is, that SKNANB does financial health verification of some sort on epass, saw that the other bank was in trouble, and pulled the plug. Possibly because the epass-owned bank funded the movies. The timing is just way too weird to be just a coincidence IMHO.

Quoted for Truth.

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by CYF

ONE of the banks was standup, the other bank is allegedly owned by epass or epassporte's owners.

My theory is, that SKNANB does financial health verification of some sort on epass, saw that the other bank was in trouble, and pulled the plug. Possibly because the epass-owned bank funded the movies. The timing is just way too weird to be just a coincidence IMHO.

q f t

[mn]

poker rake back must have been one of the reasons...

[epitome]

I think St. Kitts discovered a compliance issue and then pulled the plug on the Visa pipeline.

Meanwhile, Mallick had money going to a "friendly bank" that turned around and lent it back to him for projects.

Then there was a run on the wallet cash and United Trust paid out what little they could and when they ran out they closed the doors on Epass.

I imagine that before all of this there were tens of millions in stagnant funds that Mallick could do with as he saw fit, providing he made a return, which proved hard for him with Middle Men. None of the behind-the-scenes stuff would come to the forefront unless something went horribly wrong. It did.

All speculation in light of not having any real answers provided by the responsible parties.

[V_RocKs]

Originally Posted by epitome

I think St. Kitts discovered a compliance issue and then pulled the plug on the Visa pipeline.

Meanwhile, Mallick had money going to a "friendly bank" that turned around and lent it back to him for projects.

Then there was a run on the wallet cash and United Trust paid out what little they could and when they ran out they closed the doors on Epass.

I imagine that before all of this there were tens of millions in stagnant funds that Mallick could do with as he saw fit, providing he made a return, which proved hard for him with Middle Men. None of the behind-the-scenes stuff would come to the forefront unless something went horribly wrong. It did.

All speculation in light of not having any real answers provided by the responsible parties.

I agree with this assessment. But I do believe the St Kitts had NOTHING to do with the movie at all. It only had to do with ePassporte's lack of knowing their account holders and knowing where they were sending the funds. They most likely received a notice from the USA asking about a transaction or several and then realized ePassporte wasn't doing enough to actually know anybody. They pulled the plug.

Those 30 cent transactions and $2 affiliate payouts added up to millions a month. Believe it or not. Here is the speculative part: Chris gambled that if the movie flopped and nobody moved any major money he'd have plenty in the wallet account to cover the flop. The VV program would replace any missing money in weeks. It was just very bad timing that the movie flopped and St Kitts decided to make this move right now. Two unrelated problems turned into the perfect storm for the company.

Had St Kitts made this move in November or December, Chris would have had enough cash available to cover the problem. Then again... He is still making movies so perhaps he would never have had the cash to cover it since he had the two forms of transactions running so close to one another it was like living paycheck to paycheck.

[greenlab]

Originally Posted by Tjeezers

option 1, gamble and poker money
option 2, they refused to communicate with VISA about regulations and stuff, they turned a blind eye
option 3, epass lost a lot of revenue before the shit hits the fan cause of a decline in sales world wide since crisis. Decline cause people earned less, so automatically lesser revenue for epass
option 4, Chris toke a loan on all the wallet fundings and cant pay back ? ( this is just a speculation that comes to mind )

It is definitely a complex thing...it's probably all the above plus :

- fraud...a lot of fraud was happening with epassporte cards witch resulted in a lot of issues with Visa. When i mean a lot i mean % wise....

- again i am sure the fraud, money laundering and the past issues with gambling has put epassporte on a very tough watch list

- the bank did not have any real normal customers to balance/blend the transactions and hence the % with problems was very high. Probably Epassporte was moving trough SKNAB accounts in 1 month more than SKNAB would normally move in 1 year with their customer base...

- United Bank - despite the fact that money are probably missing from Epassporte funds to fund the blockbuster movie, i think their plan was much bigger with the opening of their own bank (United Bank)....they have moved wires from Fortis to United Bank about 2 month ago and MOSTLY SURE in the next 6-7 month they would have started to issue cards directly from United Bank (visa or mastercard) and hence leaving SKNAB out of the loop, with epassporte having full control/ownership of everything. SNKAB of course knew about this and knew they would be out of the loop soon, so probably when things added up and visa wanted to shutdown epassporte, SKNAB had almost no interest to fight for epassporte and risk a bad relationship with Visa, as SKNAB new that they would be out of the epassporte bussiness pretty soon...

It is definitely a bad relationship now with Epassporte as since they have reactivated the cards for withdrawal, they could have done this along with epassporte. Also they could have requested the docs trough epassporte, but instead they have cut their access to the cards database so epassporte could not even display ballances... I think epassporte might come back in 1-2 years with another name with cards issued from United Bank...

[Cyber Fucker]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

probably ten different factors that grew into a big clusterfuck.

__________________

[RaiderCash_Dominik]

Im sure when final memo comes out it will be "the economy, crisis, exchange rates" and bunch of other bull shit excuses.

[PXN]

The money in epass was invested in MiddleMen which flop.

[SomeCreep]

Originally Posted by fris

so what went wrong?

I speculate that some type of money laundering was taking place. Basically, something that was going to make Visa look bad, so Visa pulled the plug.

[will76]

Originally Posted by Robbie

I don't know shit...but it almost seems like that St. Kitts bank wants to take it over for themselves and put epass out of business (which seems to be what happened more or less)

that is crazy, no way what happened. It is much much much more logical that epass was doing something it shouldn't be doing and visa or the bank cut them off.

[ThumbLord]

I could tell you but then again your life would be in danger, so because I like you I cannot tell you.
try to read some russian boards or hire somebody to read and translate some russian boards.

[nikki99]

fucking gambling....

[fris]

Originally Posted by ThumbLord

I could tell you but then again your life would be in danger, so because I like you I cannot tell you.
try to read some russian boards or hire somebody to read and translate some russian boards.

or show up to his next movie premiere

[Varius]

It had nothing to do with funding the movie, or VISA issues or bank issues.

It has everything to do with the enforcement of AMLA (Anti Money Laundering Act).

Lots of Caribbean Central American / South American countries have already begun either closing American's bank accounts completely, or freezing their accounts until receiving a slew of certified documentation relating to sources of income, identity, etc... under pressure from the United States.

I just had to go through it recently, even though I'm Canadian, to keep my bank accounts here in Costa Rica operational. Every single wire received outside my normal income, also has to have documentation provided in order for it to release.

The U.S. is also heavily pushing a bill that would change the current laws about tracking all transfers over $10K, to tracking ALL transfers period.

The ONLY thing the movie MAY have done is speed up the process by giving the company and its owner extra media attention.

[bufferover]

Chris saw a big potential in the movie making biz. So his ePass venture comes to the end i guess. Middle Man sucked but he still plan to make a movie in 2011.

[V_RocKs]

Originally Posted by ThumbLord

I could tell you but then again your life would be in danger, so because I like you I cannot tell you.
try to read some russian boards or hire somebody to read and translate some russian boards.

You learn something new every day... Just found a Russian board bigger then GFY? WTF?

[SZNY]

Probably this is all staged and masterminded or has a reason to cover up the dirty stuff behind the scenes.

The guy is not stupid and probably needed to make his next move in his chess/power game. The people here on the board will never know what were the true reasons and intentions.

[BIGTYMER]

Closed as in gone? You don't think epass will be back?

[MaDalton]

Originally Posted by Jdoughs

I think they had to prove identities for their accounts. I think an audit or inspection happened and they had XX days to show compliance. When they didn't, the cards were turned off by the bank while they looked for a solution. I imagine the bank tried to deal with epassporte and have them provide answers, and after a couple weeks gave up (which we can understand, impossible to deal with epass, or even contact them.).

Soon as the bank took over we were told we would see access and some users would have to verify, basically they need to get their ducks in a row and show that there is only a small ratio of nonverified accounts.

Of course, just speculation and I'm no banker.

this is basically also my information. the main problem seemed to be that every user could give another user a gift card and up to the first $5000 there was no identity check

[elron]

they were involved with internet gambling, nothing more to add. Looks like mallick couldn't say no to some easy money and paid for that big time.

[TisMe]

Gaming involvement is also my guess.

The warning signs were there. I remember within the last 2 years or so someone complaining that their bank, BOA or Wells Fargo I think, wouldn't let them transfer funds to their Epassporte account.

Just recently Segpay announced that their bank wouldn't allow them to pay out to Epassporte.

[will76]

Originally Posted by TisMe

Gaming involvement is also my guess.

The warning signs were there. I remember within the last 2 years or so someone complaining that their bank, BOA or Wells Fargo I think, wouldn't let them transfer funds to their Epassporte account.

Just recently Segpay announced that their bank wouldn't allow them to pay out to Epassporte.

Bank Of America blocked them 2-3 years ago because of their involvement with gambling. But I also read they stopped dealing with gambling transactions when the US started going after people involved with internet gambling. I am sure Mallick (who i believe is a US citizen) didn't want to risk being thrown in jail. Everything I have heard since then they haven't been involved with gambling.

[TisMe]

That is why it was a guess, I don't know

It may have been account holder verification as stated above or something else entirely.

[lagcam]

Originally Posted by Jdoughs

I think they had to prove identities for their accounts. I think an audit or inspection happened and they had XX days to show compliance. When they didn't, the cards were turned off by the bank while they looked for a solution. I imagine the bank tried to deal with epassporte and have them provide answers, and after a couple weeks gave up (which we can understand, impossible to deal with epass, or even contact them.).

Soon as the bank took over we were told we would see access and some users would have to verify, basically they need to get their ducks in a row and show that there is only a small ratio of nonverified accounts.

Of course, just speculation and I'm no banker.

This would be my closest guess without additional information coming out.