Not only are the feds investigating the RushCard, but five users of the prepaid debit card filed a class action lawsuit in New York on Friday against Russell Simmons' company and its partners, the Daily Mail reports.
The suit claims fraud because thousands of users were not able to withdraw money from their accounts for more than 12 days. The individuals who filed the lawsuit said they weren't able to pay their rent or electricity bills or buy food, just a few of the financial inconveniences they experienced as a result of not being able to access their cash. Some users even claim that money was missing from their accounts.
No word on how much the cardholders are suing for, but the Daily Mail reports that they want Simmons and his partners to pay for "damages and restitution."
According to the companies that run the card—Rush Communications, UniRush and Meta Financial Group Inc.—the glitch was a result of switching transaction-processing vendors. Simmons personally tweeted about the glitch Thursday, assuring cardholders that everything was up and running, except for one feature. He was empathetic about the problems the glitch had caused cardholders, and went on to say that he welcomes the federal investigation because it'll show that he's running a clean financial shop.
https://twitter.com/UncleRUSH/status/657222634946473984https://twitter.com/UncleRUSH/status/657678389629743105https://twitter.com/UncleRUSH/status/657970621746319361https://twitter.com/UncleRUSH/status/658556035066519552
There aren't a lot of African Americans—and hip-hop moguls at that—in the financial-services sector serving individuals who aren't eligible for traditional services at banks. So here's hoping that Simmons and his partners get this situation resolved.
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
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