Is this Theft? BANKS won't give us our money

Campaign Created by: Ray Vahey - BitChute Founder & Chief Executive

The funds from this campaign will be received by BitChute.

Goal: GBP £100
Raised: GBP £ 43,360

Two years ago, BitChute became the target of an activist group that attempted to shut us down by pressuring our suppliers. As a result, we lost some server hosting, our office space, and other suppliers. We also lost our bank account with HSBC. A bank account we had held in good standing and without any issues since we launched in 2017.

We initially tried to open a new account with a different bank and transfer our money. However, the new bank rejected us just as the funds had reached them. Our money was returned to HSBC, but we could no longer access it, and even today, we still have not retrieved our money from HSBC.

In August 2021, after failing to get a resolution through the HSBC complaints process, we requested arbitration through the UK's banking Ombudsman. We were informed of a long wait due to Covid, which had resulted in many bank-related problems for businesses. It wouldn't be until November 2022 that our case would be assigned. 

Since arbitration started we have provided many details including the bank account where HSBC could send our money. Within a week of handing over that information, that new bank account was suspended without notice. We informed the Ombudsman that we do not want to give HSBC additional bank accounts and prefer any transfer from HSBC use a third party such as escrow, even a bag of cash would do. A necessary action that will likely lengthen the process.


It's happening again...


That happened 19 days ago, and we still have not been able to get our money from that bank even though we have informed them that we need it urgently to pay bills. It's not clear for what reason they are keeping it.

Now, nearly at the end of 2022, two different banks have our money, HSBC has held it for almost two years.


About us


BitChute is a politically neutral company that has a diverse community in interests and backgrounds. We require that users only upload legal content that complies with our terms and community guidelines, and we have a team of support staff that ensure that is the case.

BitChute is pro freedom of expression, a universal human right. Furthermore, censorship and deplatforming are poor ways to tackle societal problems as they merely create echo chambers that can lead to bigger problems in the long run. It is important to allow people to express all ideas as this exposes them to immediate opposition and allows for a public deconstruction of any flaws they may contain. If you are against bigotry or racism or hateful ideologies, you should be for freedom of expression.


"Reputational risk"


In recent years financial institutions have been using "reputational risk" to stealthily engage in political discrimination. If a financial institution takes action against a lawful company for its commitment to freedom of expression, that should be a very real reputational and material risk for the financial institution.

The idea that people or companies can be excluded from the monetary system and have their assets frozen over an opinion or lawful actions is despicable. This discrimination must be wholeheartedly rejected if we are to keep free and open societies.

Please spread the word about the unfairness of this, and share this anywhere you can. Let content creators know this is a worthy topic for a video. If you would like to contact HSBC about this or for any reason you can find their contact details here: https://www.hsbc.co.uk/contact/

I wish you all and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and any other holiday you might celebrate.

Ray Vahey - BitChute Founder and Chief Executive

UPDATES

Update #8 - USA HERE WE COME!
January 7, 2023
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Happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday break. Thank you to everyone who has supported us through this debanking so generously, and thank you for all the wonderful and thoughtful prayers and kind words you have sent us.


I have an update. We have just received a formal response for our complaint to the second bank.


  1. They have confirmed that the money they were holding has now been sent to us! It took over one month since the date our account was frozen for this to happen.
  2. They confirmed it was not directly them freezing our money, but their banking partner, and that they had to terminate our account because of their banking partner. We suspect we know who that is, and we suspect it's one of the big banks in the UK, but they did not specify the name.
  3. They said "the delay in returning your funds was due to our banking partner holding the funds for transaction review."


That's just crazy that a bank can freeze funds without notice, and hold those funds for more than a month without explanation while they do a "transactional review". To me that sounds like an excuse to cause our business as much pain as possible through the Christmas period.


None of this has changed the situation with HSBC who do still have our money. Our arbitration case with HSBC continues and we will update that with this new information. We will update you as that develops.


We are also considering all our next steps, which is to include moving some of our corporate structure for monetization out of the UK and into the USA where we know we can have stable banking. The USA does not have the same high level of business risks with activists being able to completely debank companies, and we've already had senior people in US banks reach out to say they would support us. USA, here we come! 

Update #7 Shout out by Charlie Ward
December 16, 2022
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We just received a should out from Charlie Ward, thanks to him and his assistant Lee.

Best Wishes,

Ray

https://www.bitchute.com/video/Qw2h06Jl6FVi/

Update #6 Max Igan - The Crowhouse
December 15, 2022
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Today Max Igan, a veteran of alternative media and a friend of mine gave us a shout out in his walk-and-talk, you may already be familiar with Max but if not he is well worth checking out.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/7pq7krolg4ZP/

Update #5 This story was covered by Health Impact News & David Knight
December 15, 2022
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Thanks to Health Impact News for covering this, I would encourage you to read their article which you can find here: https://healthimpactnews.com/2022/banks-freeze-funds-of-pro-free-speech-video-platform-bitchute/

Also thanks to David Knight who covered this at the start of his show earlier today. I was introduced to David years ago and I was previously on his show. I encourage you to check it out: https://www.bitchute.com/video/A6C3ce6EFURr/

Best Wishes

Ray

Update #4 Dan Dicks - Press For Truth
December 14, 2022
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I went on press for truth earlier to help spread the word about the insidious nature of this deplatforming, and how supporters of freedom of expression need to start doing more legal and peaceful activism to hold banks like HSBC to account. HBCS doesn't seem to have respect for the law but maybe they can learn respect when it starts to hit them in the pocket and more people learn how evil they are.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/cMRsZfj0tOAq/

Also we have had some great messages from you guys about how you have taken time out of your day, sometimes upwards of an hour to call HSBC and explain to them the importance of free speech. Thank you so much that is very important.

Best Wishes

Ray


Update #3 Thanks to Styx for reporting on this *clank*
December 13, 2022
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A huge thanks to Styx for making a video, he's absolutely right that more people need to call this out or it will happen again and again, and each time the bar is moved further towards totalitarianism.

Check out his video below:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/f_yRx_icwas/

Best Wishes

Ray

Crypto Addresses
December 13, 2022
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I've been reading your Prayer messages and I've been overwhelmed by your kindness and support. Thank you all, I will try to reply to as many as I can as soon as I can. I feel so much optimism seeing how the community has responded to this. Thank you all.

Some people have asked do we have any crypto addresses and yes we do. I've included a bunch below.

BTC: 1NBnU2r5X4iKaaWdz6gmC1Efrq1bSubfuZ

ETH: 0x31fc1af96fa931e128834f9aa61d3364885a85b6

LTC: LSK2kfztAhcjiB5Sptp6KcPDgwGgWCu1A1

Dogecoin: DM9WwpUWPSA4ChE342i8qxt5LMDrUCBX7f

BCH: 14xZLjPJpDLdKfjoeVmMiKnEB6ntca8cQd

XRP: rwU8rAiE2eyEPz3sikfbHuqCuiAtdXqa2v

Best Wishes

Ray

BitChutes' banking problem covered on World Alternative Media
December 13, 2022
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A big shout out to Josh Sigurdson for reporting on this news - that we have had our money frozen by multiple banks.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/a81VSg6OzQyk/





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