[dangrossman]

I followed the "Launch HN" of Yotta 4 years ago and deposited some money.

Evolve Bank says "we have determined that we are not holding your funds and you will not be receiving a payment from Evolve" (reconciliationbyevolve.com)

Yotta customer support says "According to the Synapse Trial Balance Report, your funds are with Evolve Bank & Trust".

It doesn't appear I'll ever be getting that money back. It's not enough that I'll hurt, but it'll make me think twice about trusting a non-bank fintech startup and their "FDIC insured" claims.

This is what Yotta's website looked like in 2020, where "FDIC insured" is the most prominent part of their pitch, and one of the homepage blocks is titled "You can’t lose": https://web.archive.org/web/20200630201639/https://www.withy...

Turns out, we could lose.

[micah94]

I know it wasn't a traditional bank, but when they start talking about "winning" $10 million and "picking your numbers", it sounds sooo sketchy... I can't imagine putting money into something like that. (excuse me while I go buy more DOGE coin...)

[tdeck]

Probably not worth it but if it's less than about $5k you may be able to sue in small claims court. It's unlikely the bank will even show up and in that case you would win by default. Collection might be a challenge though.

IANAL.

[hipadev23]

Who are they going to sue? Yotta? Synapse? Evolve?

[QuadmasterXLII]

Typically you just sue all three, which is called joinder. However this may be out of scope for small claims. Practically, banks and insurance companies seem to be immune to lawsuits, so I would put the odds of this working at very, very low, whereas if a ycombinator meal prep startup intentionally poisoned you I would expect a lawsuit to get through much more often: somewhere on the order of magnitude of half the time.

[tdeck]

If it were me I would pick the one that I had the direct business relationship, or failing that the one that is solvent. But the strategy is specifically banking on the fact that small claims court is more favorable to individuals without legal training than other courts are, and the dollar amount isn't worth the company sending someone to fight over it.

[neilv]

All of them, and the founders, officers, and investors, personally?