US Bank Manipulation of police investigation and wrongful denial of fraud claim. Nationwide

In December 2009 my company hired a contractor to work on homes we owned in Fort Wayne Indiana. We are in California so in order to purchase materials WDIA would check out at a hardware store in Ft. Wayne and I would give the payment information to the customer service department. The contractor somehow convinced the representative to add my credit card info to his contractor without my permission. The contractor then began using my card to purchase materials for other jobs over a six month period. We were running approximately $1 million a month on the card for material purchases in 22 states so our back office missed the charges.

Two weeks after submitting the fraud claim to US Bank I was called by Shannon (866-540-9904 * 11039) in the fraud department for a debriefing.  It was clear from the first call that Shannon’s objective was not assisting my company with the fraud charges, but rather trying to find a way to deny the claim. On 7/28/2009 I spoke with Detective Laura Ashley (714-647-7486) at the Orange County Sheriff's department where I originated the police report. Detective Ashley said the case was transferred to the Fort Wayne Police Department on 07/26/09 and to wait a week before contacting them. I gave this information to Shannon at US Bank. On 08/04/2009 Shannon at US Bank contacted me and said that she spoke with the Detective in Fort Wayne and that the Fort Wayne detective told her that they were not pressing criminal charges. Shannon went on to say because they were not pressing charges US Bank was denying the claim. I was flabbergasted; I had never authorized the transactions, the purchases in no way benefited me, and I had no contract with the merchant or perpetrator to allow the purchases. This was clearly fraud. Shannon said the only way they would reverse their decision is if the Detective pressed charges. I contacted Fort Wayne Detective Wayne Likowski (260-427-1201) and he said the he just spoke with Shannon at US Bank and Shannon told the detective there was a contract between the perpetrator and our company (which is false) that authorized the purchases so we would have to go to court and get the monies back. I asked the Detective if he had this contract, or seen any proof we authorized these transactions, which he said he had not. In fact, he had not even called the perpetrator. I asked him if there was no contract and Jeremy Tillotson used my card fraudulently would it be a criminal matter. He said yes it would but he would have to look into it. It is wrong that Shannon at US Bank steered the investigation by telling the detective there was a contract between Jeremy and our company and that Menards (the merchant) had authorization from our company for the purchases when in fact she fabricated this information and had no supporting evidence.

Of the $84,175 in fraudulent charges I had paid off all but approximately $7,800 on the card, prior to realizing the fraud charges. US Bank denied the fraud charges, steered he police investigation which allowed Jeremy Tillotson to get away with fraud and then US Bank charged off the remaining balance of my business line and came after me personally. I have worked for two years to get the charge off removed from my credit to no avail. This has negatively affected my credit creating increased borrowing costs and difficulty obtaining credit.