Western Union Remission Phase 2
Update September 15, 2023. The Department of Justice has begun its first distribution of approximately $38 million in funds forfeited to the U.S. Government from the Western Union Company to over 24,000 victims located in the United States and abroad. These victims will be recovering the full amount of their losses.
This first round of payments is one of several expected to occur in the Western Union Phase Two remission. DOJ in conjunction with USPIS and the Remission Administrator continues to review petitions for remission from potential victims of the Western Union fraud and anticipates authorizing compensation for many more victims in the coming months.
You can read the DOJ’s press release here.
Important: The DOJ, FTC, and the claims administrator will NOT request petitioners pay any money to the administrator or anyone else in connection with the petition for remission process. If you receive such a request, it is fraudulent and should be directed to [email protected].
UPDATE yNovember 30, 2022. The Petition for Remission Portal will be closing on December 31, 2022. Once the submission portal is closed Petitions for Remission will no longer be accepted. If you would like to submit a Petition for Remission please do so before December 31, 2022.
UPDATE June 17, 2022: The original submission deadline for Petitions for Remission was July 1, 2022. The deadline to submit a Petition for Remission has now been extended to August 31, 2022. Petitions for Remission must be postmarked or submitted online on or before August 31, 2022. The acceptance of mailed Petitions for Remission postmarked after this date will be subject to the Justice Department’s discretion.
UPDATE March 18, 2022: Phase Two of the remission process for the Western Union case has started. Over 300,000 petitions have been mailed to identified victims who did not file a petition in the initial phase. The petition can be filed electronically using the Claim ID and Pin included on the letter or mailed to the address listed on the petition.
IF YOU PREVIOUSLY FILED A PETITION IN THE INITIAL WESTERN UNION REMISSION PLEASE DO NOT FILE ANOTHER PETITION IN THE WESTERN UNION REMISSION PHASE TWO.
Summary:
On January 19, 2017, the Western Union Company (Western Union) entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the United States. Pursuant to the DPA, Western Union acknowledged responsibility for its criminal conduct, which included violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and aiding and abetting wire fraud, and agreed to forfeit $586 million, which has been made available to compensate victims of the international consumer fraud scheme through the remission process. Western Union simultaneously resolved a parallel civil investigation with the Federal Trade Commission.
The scheme, investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, involved the targeting of consumers by fraudsters through multiple scams. These scams included the grandparent scam, where the fraudster would pose as the victim’s relative in need of immediate money to avoid personal harm, the lottery or sweepstakes scams, where the fraudster would tell the victim that they had won a large cash prize but had to pay fees such as taxes to claim the prize, and the romance scams, where the fraudster would pose as an online love interest and request funds for a visit or for another purpose. In each of these scams the fraudsters convinced their victims to send money through Western Union, and no victims received the promised cash, prize, or promoted item.
The U.S. Department of Justice is overseeing the remission process and hired Gilardi & Co., LLC (Gilardi) to serve as the remission administrator in this matter. To date, the Department of Justice has distributed over $366 million in funds forfeited to the U.S. government from Western Union to over 148,000 victims, all of whom received full compensation for their losses. Due to the continued availability of forfeited funds to compensate additional victims, the Department of Justice has opened the petition process to potential victims who have not previously submitted petitions for remission.
If you believe you were a victim of the fraud described above and you made a wire transfer through Western Union between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017, you may be eligible for remission.
In order to be considered for a remission payment, you will be required to submit a Petition for Remission Form along with any available supporting documentation. Your petition must be postmarked on or before July 1, 2022, and completed online or mailed to:
United States v. The Western Union Company
PO Box 301172
Los Angeles, CA 90030-1172
Initial Western Union Remission:
In 2018, the remission process for the Western Union case started and over 500,000 petitions were mailed to identified victims. Over 180,000 petitions were received in the initial Western Union remission process. Since then, three distributions have been completed.
If you previously filed a claim or received a distribution, please visit the Western Union Remission website here or send an email to [email protected].
IF YOU PREVIOUSLY FILED A PETITION IN THE INITIAL WESTERN UNION REMISSION PLEASE DO NOT FILE ANOTHER PETITION IN THE WESTERN UNION REMISSION PHASE TWO.