Woman says IRS gave her more than $30,000, but bank wouldn’t let her touch the money

CHARLOTTE — Kristine Knipp owned a ballroom dance club for 30 years.

She told Channel 9’s Jason Stoogenke that she sold the business during the pandemic. The IRS gave her a certain tax break -- what’s called -- an employee retention credit.

“It was $30,000, $30,088.90 to be exact,” she said.

Knipp deposited the check in a Truist account.

“It’s money that I had plans for to help continue to pay off some bills that I incurred during the 2020 pandemic,” Knipp said.

Instead, she says Truist froze the money, wouldn’t let her touch it, that the bank sent her multiple letters, saying the same thing: “Truist exercised its right to freeze your account until the validity of the check and ownership of the funds are verified.”

“No end in sight, you know, almost like, ‘yeah, don’t bother us kid. We’ll get it to you when [we] get it to you,’” she said. “I have plans for that money. I’m retired. I have things I need to do with it.”

Action 9 has come across this issue before, involving other banks.

In 2023, Chase blocked Lois White’s student loan refund check.

“Feel like a criminal, like I’ve done something wrong,” she said.

Last year, Citibank held onto social media influencer Rich Journey’s $5,000 check for three months.

Greendot locked Shelley Camp’s account for a fraud alert on her tax refund.

“It’s a big mess. It’s a big mess,” Camp said.

Notice that at least two of those checks were from the federal government.

Knipp says she spent hours each week trying to resolve this. She filed complaints with both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the FDIC.

At last check, she said she still wasn’t able to touch the money and that it wasn’t sent back to the IRS either.

“It’s like, are you going to keep that money forever?” Knipp said. “All you have is your time and your treasure, and they’ve used up both.”

Truist told WSOC’s sister station in Atlanta it was “working diligently to help resolve the matter.”

If your bank freezes your money:

• Contact the bank and get that ball rolling.
• If you think it’s going to drag on a while, you may want to switch your direct deposits to another account, so you get ‘that’ money.
• Switch any bills on autopay to a different account, so you don’t get behind on payments.

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