Blocked Funds — Paid Consultation on a Frozen Payment or a Returned Wire
A paid consultation with Sherrod Seward, Esq. on a payment a bank has frozen, returned, or will not explain.
The first question is not how to get the money back. It is what happened to it, because two very different things arrive described in the same phone call. Funds that were blocked are frozen and held; blocking is not seizure and title does not pass to the government, but the money does not move without authorisation. A payment that was rejected was never held at all — it was refused and sent back towards the sender. You will leave the call knowing which of the two your matter is, who the argument is actually with, and what the route looks like from there.
Before this office can accept a consultation fee on a sanctions matter, it must screen the prospective client and, separately, whoever would be paying. Where a person or entity is blocked, providing legal services and receiving payment for them are two different questions under the sanctions regulations, and the answer to the first does not answer the second. So there is no payment link on this page. Send the enquiry, this office will run the screening, and if a fee can lawfully be accepted you will be told what it is and how to pay it. If it cannot, you will be told that instead.
Sending this form does not engage this office and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Nothing here is an offer to represent any person or entity, and nothing here should be read as a statement that this office is authorised to act for, or to accept payment from, any particular person.
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Request a consultation
Six fields. About a minute.
Bring the call one of these
- A bank has frozen a payment and will not tell you why.
- A wire came back and you were told the reason was sanctions.
- Money has been sitting untouched for months and nobody will give you a status.
- You are caught because of who owns a counterparty rather than because of who you are.
- You need to know whether an application to the agency is even the right route.
Blocked or rejected decides who you are arguing with
If the funds were blocked, they are frozen in place because property in which a blocked person has an interest came within United States jurisdiction. The money is held rather than taken, and it is released only where the agency authorises it, so the argument and the paperwork run to the agency. If the transaction was rejected, there was no blockable property interest to hold: a prohibited transaction was refused and the payment went back. Then the conversation is with the financial institution and the payment chain, and an application to the agency is the wrong instrument entirely. Establishing which of the two happened, from the payment records and from what the bank has actually put in writing, is the first work of the consultation, and it changes everything that follows it.
This office has been the plaintiff, not only the drafter
Law Offices of Sherrod Seward, PLLC v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
No. 3:25-cv-00057 (W.D.N.C.), filed January 2025
This office has been the plaintiff in a Freedom of Information Act case, not only the drafter of the request. When an agency declined to produce records, the firm filed suit in its own name under 5 U.S.C. 552 to compel production.
A pending matter is described here as a fact about this office's own experience. It is not a result, it does not predict anything about any other case, and every case is decided on its own record. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
How it runs
- Send the enquiryThe form below. It takes about a minute and it asks for nothing sensitive.
- ScreeningThis office screens the prospective client and, separately, whoever would pay. On a sanctions matter that has to happen before a fee can be accepted.
- You are told where you standEither what the consultation costs and how to pay it, or that a fee cannot lawfully be accepted here. You will be told plainly which.
- The consultationThe call itself, followed by a written summary of what was decided and the dates that govern it.
Watch first
Questions people actually ask
What do I actually get for the fee?
The $500 is the fee for the consultation itself and for the written summary that follows it. It is not a retainer, and it does not include drafting or filing a FOIA request, an administrative appeal, a licence application, a delisting petition, a federal court complaint, a trademark application, a response to a USPTO office action, or a post-registration maintenance filing - each of those is separately scoped and separately quoted. Government, agency and court filing fees, any agency search, review or duplication fees, and any USPTO filing fees, are not included and are payable to the government, not to this office. On a government contract matter it likewise does not include preparing or certifying a claim to a contracting officer, a request for equitable adjustment, a termination settlement proposal, an agency-level protest, a protest at the Government Accountability Office, an appeal to an agency board of contract appeals, or a complaint in the United States Court of Federal Claims - each of those is separately scoped and separately quoted.
Is this legal advice?
The consultation is. This page is not — it is general information about federal practice, and reading it creates no relationship with this office. Sending this form does not create an attorney-client relationship. No attorney-client relationship is formed until this office and you have signed a written engagement agreement.
Can you tell me what my chances are?
You will get a candid assessment of what your record supports and where it is thin, which is the useful version of that question. What you will not get is a percentage. Every matter is decided on its own record by a government officer or a judge, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
What happens if you cannot help?
You will be told so on the call, and told where the matter actually belongs. That happens often enough to be worth saying out loud.
Why will the bank not explain what happened?
Banks are constrained in what they may say, and the person you reach is usually not the person who made the decision. That is a real obstacle rather than an excuse, and it is why the useful material is documentary: the payment instruction, the advice or return message, the dates, the intermediary institutions in the chain, and anything the bank has put in writing. Bring those and the picture usually resolves quickly.
Nobody involved is on any list. Why is the money caught?
Frequently ownership. An entity owned in the aggregate fifty percent or more by one or more blocked persons is treated as blocked itself, whether or not it appears on any list, and aggregation across several owners is what catches people out, because no single owner appears to cross the line. Working out whether that is what happened to your counterparty is a factual exercise and part of the call.
Why is there no payment button on this page?
Because on a sanctions matter this office screens the prospective client and, separately, whoever would be paying, before it can accept a fee. Where a person is blocked, providing legal services and receiving payment for them are two different questions under the regulations, and an authorisation for the first is not an authorisation for the second. Settling that first is this office's obligation, not an obstacle put in front of you.