NETeller Announces Agreement to Create Plan for U.S. Funds Distribution
NETeller Plc announced this morning that it signed an agreement yesterday with the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO), allowing the firm to create, within 75 days, a plan for repatriating frozen funds to its U.S. customers.
The announcement, wryly titled 'NETeller Takes Positive Step Towards Returning US Customer Funds,' indicates that NETeller will employ a third party, Navigant Consulting, Inc., to help create a timeline and payment plan which will be announced in the next 75 days. It is important to note that the 75-day period applies to the creation of the repayment timeline, not to the repayment process itself; several early reports on the announcement blur the line between the two. Navigant is to be the 'forensic auditing firm' mentioned in NETeller's early-February release on the matter, with that firm also reporting to the USAO on the process.
"We continue to be committed to returning funds to our US customers and working with the US Attorney's Office," said Ron Martin, Group President and CEO. "Progress, while not always visible to the outside observer, has been steady and these agreements mark a milestone in the process."
NETeller has already added the new information to its NETeller Member Update page, "where it is able," according to the press release, "around certain issues currently being raised in a number of public forums." The inclusion of the passage in the release indicates that rising consumer pressure has been felt by NETeller and contributed to the haste in which the news was announced.
