Woman searching for $120,000 that disappeared from bank account

PHOENIX (KPHO/Gray News) - An Arizona woman says a simple bank wire transfer has turned her life upside down.

Margaret Lomax told KPHO that the wire transfer was for $120,000 but now, no one seems to know where the money has gone.

Lomax said the $120,000 was successfully transferred because she saw the money in the account. However, once the money was transferred to a second account it didn’t stay there very long.

Now, Lomax and both banks involved reportedly don’t know what happened to the money.

“I’m at my wit’s end. I don’t know what to do anymore.” Lomax said. “I’m climbing the walls. There are nights that I’ll go through half a box of Kleenex crying.”

According to Lomax, she recently sold her home in Rio Vista, California, after raising her kids and living there for 29 years. She said she took the $120,000 from the home purchase and deposited it in her account at a small bank in California called Farmers & Merchants.

Lomax said she later transferred the money to her account with Citibank.

“I decided I would transfer $120,000, which is basically my life savings,” she said.

But when Lomax tried to use a debit card from her Citibank account, it was declined. That’s when she went online to check her balance and discovered all the money was gone.

“It was actually right there on the screen. And then poof! It just disappeared,” she said.

Citibank sent Lomax a letter telling her that she had “violated the terms of her account” and that it would be closed within 60 days. Once those 60 days expired, her daughter said she was told the money had been returned to its “rightful owner.”

However, the rightful owner should have been either Lomax or the account where it was transferred from at Farmers & Merchants. But neither had the money.

“My biggest fear is that they sent it somewhere and somebody else got it and they are saying, ‘Christmas came early this year!’” Lomax said.

After providing documentation and wiring instructions, both banks have agreed to investigate the situation.

But in the meantime, Lomax is stressed out.

“I’d like my money back,” she said. “I’d like to buy a home so I can live my last 20-30 years comfortably.”

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