Canopy Financial made the news a couple of weeks back when it declared bankruptcy in the latest corporate scandal, taking many millions of investor's money down. What is less known is what it did to its customers.
I had a Health Savings Account (HSA), the type that one can use with a high-deductible health insurance. My HSA was administered by Shawnee Administrative Services. Shawnee, in turn, used Canopy Financial's services to maintain the HSA accounts. At the end of November, 2009, the debit card for my HSA suddenly stopped working, and on December 8th I was served with a letter stating that my HSA was "misappropriated" and that I am now a creditor to Canopy Financial. In a subsequent series of phone calls to Shawnee I found out about the messy situation behind the scenes, which may be best described as Canopy taking the HSA funds of multiple depositors and misdirecting the money somewhere else, I do not know where exactly. All the while I believed that the HSA is safe in an FDIC-insured bank! What makes the situation crazy, is that Canopy is neither a bank, nor a broker nor any other financial institution; it is merely an IT company that develops and markets software for moving the money around between financial institutions. So this is not exactly the type of business that one would investigate when opening an account. After all, do you know what company made the software used by your bank?
A recorded message on Canopy's information hotline, 877-288-0731, states that there are at least 1,000 account holders in my situation. My loss is about $4500. Multiple by a thousand, that's $4.5 million stolen. What makes it even worse, is that the money stolen was saved for payment of health insurance deductibles.
Now Canopy is pursuing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, meaning that the company seeks reorganization and charge-off of certain debts, that no doubt would include my Health Savings Account, and to continue operations afterwards. In all honesty, I believe that they should not be allowed to do that. They cannot be trusted with one's money, and in particular, money saved for healthcare. Shut them down completely, force to sell computers and furniture, and then go after the personal wealth of the founders: Vikram Kashyap, Jeremy Blackburn, Anthony Banas and corporate officers: Scott Hazdra (Chief Security Officer) and John Ingram (Chief Administrative Officer).
Anyone else victimized by Canopy Financial, please add to this report.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Karl
highlands ranch,Colorado,
U.S.A.
'BANK POEM'....
#4Consumer Comment
Mon, December 21, 2009
is available in the comments section at the 'BANK OF AMERICA' page of this site. There are many poems available there. Anyone can go to 'Bing', and then type this in, exactly as it appears here- BROCK O'BOMB-A POEM, and the power of 'Bing' should take you to that poem and others.
Vladimir Makarov
Thousand Oaks,California,
United States of America
Canopy Financial victims should stand together
#4Author of original report
Sun, December 20, 2009
The only way that I see to protect our rights, and to make sure it does not happen to others, is to get to know each other (all former HSA holders burned by Canopy) and to go after the company as a group. I am also thinking of going after banks where the money was kept. After all, it is hard to "misappropriate" funds from a bank without a gun or a conspiracy, isn't it? The crime committed by Canopy in stealing the HSA funds is worse than wasting the VC investments. VCs are ready to lose their money; it is their job to allocate it according to risk. But theft of HSAs is a crime of moral turpitude, aimed at those who can afford it the least. Letting the media know about this crime is newsworthy, and may create the buzz that we, Canopy victims, need to get our savings back. But one person's voice is thin; if we stand together, it will roar.
RLS
SANTA ANA,California,
United States of America
Canopy-Wellfund Ripoff
#4Consumer Comment
Sun, December 20, 2009
All good info here on this. What amazes me is that there has been roughly ZERO media coverage on this debacle. The ABC affiliate in Chicago did a piece on the Chapter 11 filing in late November, but I can find little else. Is that because the company is based in Chicago (thanks, Mr. President) and has offices in San Francisco (thanks, Ms. Speaker)? Maybe that's where the money went. Anyway, I agree that HSA accounts should not be dischargeable in a bankruptcy reorganization - thanks for the code citation. My wife and I each have a Wellfund HSA account with a combined total in low 5-figures, and have sent proof of claim forms back to the Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. How do we go about arguing that these accounts should not be discharged in the Chapter 11 proceeding and that they should be insured by the FDIC (or what's left of it...)? And has anyone heard from the SEC or the FBI about the extent of the damage in terms of dollars?