After employer.com Banking Accounting Start Bank acquired in bankruptcy In a fire sale at the end of last year, the CEO Jesse Tensley engaged on LinkedIn and other places to honor the past payments of the client.
“We are honoring all the prepaid bank services even though we will not have the income of that directly,” Tinsley He said in an interview with the founder and inverter Julian Weisser.
But some banking clients say they are charged to obtain books or tax statements that they paid previously.
A demand Filed on Tuesday by the Bench client, Qorum, he states that Bench required that he would pay to obtain his tax declaration of 2023, despite having paid the service under the previous owners of Bench.
“The defendant Jesse Tensley made negligent misrepresentations when he falsely declared that Employer.com would honor the services of Banco Prepaid,” he alleges the demand.
Another client, who requested anonymity, was surprised to know that they needed to renew their subscription to complete the accounting books when they paid that service two years ago, according to the correspondence seen by Techcrunch.
When they questioned this, a bank representative told them that “Bench 2.0” has no affiliation with previous obligations and that Employer.com could not assume unpaid work.
The CMO of Employer.com, Matt Charney, firmly disputes that Bench is charging for the work previously paid. “We have been and we are honoring prepaid services for our customers,” he said.
Charney also said that he delivered that tax declaration 2023 to Qorum without requiring additional payment. But the founder of Qorum, Andrew Pietra, told TechCrunch that he had to continue his subscription to get the return first.
Under his previous property, Bench burned A $ 135 million and Fought to get AI To replace human accountants. That led to long delays and large lots of books that should still be completed, according to former employees.
Multiple bank customers Previously told TechCrunch that Employer.com had also sent them notices aimed at making clicking on a consent button that made them give up reimbursements in prepaid services.
Many books and returns remained incomplete when Bench closed abruptly on December 26 of last year. Employer.com, an American company, announced plans To buy Canadian Fintech less than 72 hours later.
Employer.com bought bank for $ 9 million, Bankruptcy presentations Presented at the Canada show.
Fintech’s abrupt collapse was caused by the lack of liquidity after its main creditor, the National Bank of Canada, refused to lend it $ 7.7 million in December 2024. The NBC had already provided $ 51 million dollars in credit to the startup with problems, According to the previous presentations.
Ironically, it is the news of Bench’s sudden closure that led to its rescue. The company had previously bought, but could not find a serious buyer, the filings note.