Freelancer.com illegitimate suspension of funds Internet

I've been using freelancer.com website for freelance programming tasks since they took over another popular site scriptlance.com.

Idea of freelance programming is that employers (people that want a job done) post an ad, and there's an "auction" of bids from freelancers to complete the task

I've recently completed a project for an employer in Brazil which involved writing an automation tool.

We were in the last stage of completing the project, employer already transferred me almost all payment that was due for the project (payments are done within freelancer.com payment management system and then can potentially be withdrawn to freelancer's bank account or paypal account).

When i attempted to withdraw the money from freelancer account i found that withdrawal did not complete, so i contacted freelancer.com support staff to find out that employer's account has been put on verification and that i cannot complete the money withdrawal from my account until that verification is complete.

I have then contacted the employer to identify what's going on and was presented with evidence that all necessary verification information (passport scan, credit card front and back and proof of address) has been submitted, and has been rejected by freelancer.com staff as passport was not [quote]in english format[/quote].

All further attempts to reason freelancer.com staff were futile and after a while employer's account on the website has been terminated and money from my freelancer's account and from employer's freelancer account vanished (stolen by freelancer.com)