Hi everyone. I didn't really know where to post this on the forum so if a mod needs to move it to the relevant section please do.
I have been having an issue with a exchange that is based in London UK. I don't know if I am aloud to mention the name so I will leave the exchange name and token name blank for now.
I will try to keep my story short. So 8 days ago I transferred a token to sell on a exchange that is London UK based (I am also in UK) as the price was slightly higher to sell on the exchange. I did around 3 separate transfers of this token to the exchange and sold to bitcoin with no problems. Once I had sold my token I decided to transfer my bitcoin out of the exchange but I knew the exchange had to manually accept the withdrawal and this takes them a few hours some times, so I went to bed thinking my bitcoin withdrawal will have gone through by the next morning. Well it did not and I woke to find my account had been deactivated and my withdrawal rejected. I went to the exchanges telegram and spoke to the CEO of the exchange, he went on to ask me why my trades looked suspicious, to which I replied I had no idea why my trades looked suspicious and said sorry if they did. So the admin unlocked my account but said I would have to have my bitcoin converted back into the token. I was disappointed but thought oh well nothing gained nothing lost. As the day went on nothing was happening with the swap back so I decided I will try to withdraw my btc to be safe but it got rejected by the exchange and my account locked again. So I messaged the CEO again and asked for my account to be unlocked again. He did eventually allow me on the exchange again but when I logged back in there was no bitcoin and no token's in my account. So over the last 8 days I have been messaging the CEO back and forth trying to get him to transfer me my tokens back. At first I was told Monday, Then he changed his mind to Wednesday, and the last communication he said it would be Friday (today) but I have not had any of my funds returned.
The CEO and Customer service have not replied to my request for an update on the situation in 2 days now so I am starting to suspect fowl play. The exchange is still active but there main telegram has been off line for a few days. I am not the only one in this situation there are quite a few people having the same issues, most people seem to have had most or some of there funds returned but I have had nothing returned. I have been on the token's telegram and the team are being very supportive and as helpful as they can but they have had no luck yet in getting my funds/tokens returned. When I sold my tokens on the exchange it was a large amount of my total portfolio that I was going to reinvest that day and buy back the token I sold at a cheaper price at a later date.
I don't want to say the exact amount the exchange is keeping from me but it is probably 4 or 5 times the amount it would cost me to hire a lawyer.
So I would be very grateful if anyone could give me any advice on how I should proceed.
Is the exchange aloud to keep my funds for 8 days with no real explanation?
Are there and specific company's in the UK that can take care of this kind of thing?
Should I contact trading standards in the UK?
Am I best just going into a basic law firm and seeing what they think?
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me.
