PayPal Holdings Inc. has been sued by two California residents and a Chicago resident for allegedly putting holds on user accounts which would violate racketeering laws. 

According to a report by Bloomberg, there are three people involved in pushing the federal lawsuit, and are represented by the Bensamochan Law Firm. The complaint says that the company put a hold for as much as six months on funds. PayPal spokesperson Caitlin Girouard released a statement about the lawsuit filed on Jan. 13.

“PayPal is reviewing the filing and we will respond to the allegations through the appropriate legal channels in due course,” Girouard said.

Girouard referred to the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy that suggested that the plaintiffs may have committed a violation of the company policies, which result in $2,500 worth of damages. This could have been because a product or service was deemed to be likely fraudulent by a government agency. 

In May, 2003 World Series of Poker champion Chris Moneymaker announced that he planned to sue PayPal over the company putting a hold on $12,000 that was in his account. However, the attorney Eric Bensamochan said Moneymaker’s money was returned quickly and he was not allowed to be the lead plaintiff.

On Bensamochan’s Twitter page on Jan. 18 he retweeted a report by Legal U.S. Poker explaining that Moneymaker was the original person to notice the issue with PayPal and asked people to come forward if they had similar experiences. The report said that more than $12,000 in his account was for a fantasy football league to be given out to winners after the 2020 football season. The money was frozen in November 2020 for a 180-day investigation but then in April 2021 it was reported that he violated terms of service and his money was confiscated. This is when he approached Bensamochan for legal help, who now leads the charge. 

Poker League of Nations founder Lena Evans is reportedly one of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, as well as Roni Shemtov and Shbadan Akylbejov. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of North District of California under: Evans v. PayPal Inc., 5:22-cv-248, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.