As a founder, CEO, shopkeeper – whatever you might be – your business is your lifeblood. It is the thing that funds your lifestyle, keeps a roof over your head, and feeds your family. So when tormentors recklessly post harmful comments about your business online, it gets really personal really quickly. From Apple to Truevo, no company is safe from abuse. At the time of this post’s publication, we are enduring a baseless smear campaign from a former client who is hellbent on defaming our founder and other key members of our team.
Defamation is the act of attacking a person or entity with intentionally false or inflammatory accusations to elicit damage to their reputation. In our case, a person who owns two establishments – which were previously under contract with Truevo – is sharing harmful lies about our company. The individual’s current extortionary behaviour is an unlawful attempt to pressure and threaten our company. The situation was avoidable; for three and a half years, the aforementioned individual failed to provide us with an European bank account which we could transfer his funds into. After numerous communications and explanations, this individual finally provided us with his new bank account confirmation on the 12th of May 2021. As part of our regulatory obligation, we needed to verify these details to make sure that they were legitimate. This process can take one to two weeks, depending on the jurisdiction of the bank and other factors. After waiting for only two working days, he started his baseless smear campaign against us on the 16th of May. On the 28th of May 2021, his funds were settled to him after the proper verification was completed.
Strict regulations apply to every financial institution, all of which we adhere to. Under the European license from which we operate, extensive regulations are in place to safeguard 100% of a client’s funds. This safeguarding protects all of our client’s funds in a separate and segregated bank account from our own company funds. So, simply put, at no time can we as a company misuse any of our clients’ funds, as per this individual’s public and false accusation.
Once the facts had been established, it was time to act quickly and decisively to clear up the situation. We reached out to the person, tried to ascertain what the issue was, and endeavoured to see if there was a way to resolve it without delay. This seemed to be impossible for the individual, who has not only continued, but increased his abusive posting. We alerted the authorities on all the affected social media platforms of the individual’s behaviour, and are yet to see any meaningful action taken against the lies and defamatory posts about our team and business.
We have given the individual every opportunity to retract his statements, delete his posts, and remove his comments. We have been civil, courteous, and firm in all our communications. Even if this person doesn’t drop the issue, we know that we have maintained our dignity and integrity by dealing with all customers fairly and honestly. We are confident that good reviews and positive experiences of working with our company will eclipse any negative dealings such as this. And where we have the power to help our customers, we do it to the best of our ability.
Facing a bully with our head held high may earn us a few bruises, but eventually, the truth will out. Through consistent and diligent focus on you – our customers – our service to you, and communication with you, we demonstrate why Truevo is a business to be trusted.
“We pride ourselves on being a compliant, regulated financial institution where extensive investments are continuously being made to better serve our customers.” – David Liu, CEO and founder.
