What is my liability should I receive a counterfeit cashier's check in the amount of $50,000.00 and present it to the bank for deposit? This happened to me. The bank placed a 7 business day hold on the check, assuring me the check would be clear funds before the hold is removed. They said the check must be proven to be legit and backed with funds with the issuing bank. Then they informed me that the check has cleared and they removed the hold. I spent the money. Next, the bank learned the check was counterfeit and told me I am liable. They have closed all my accounts with them and my other bank. They have taken both mine and my wife's social security and pension checks, which we entrusted to them by direct deposit. I did everything possible to obtain their assurance the check would be clear money before it was made available. They assured me I had nothing to worry about because I would not have the funds made available until they had "money in the bank." What did I do wrong to make me liable?
When you endorsed the check for deposit, you gave the bank a guarantee that if the check bounced, you'd make it good to them. The bank did the same thing when it endorsed the check and sent it along to the paying (in this case, non-paying) bank. The guarantees got chased back up the chain of ownership of the check, and you've been left "holding the bag," as it were.
There's no uniform way for a bank to determine whether a given check is genuine or that it will be paid. That's the reason your bank placed a hold on the funds when you deposited this check. Without knowing more about the check and the dates involved, we can't determine whether the check was promptly returned by the bank it was drawn on. If that bank is a U.S. bank, it had an obligation to notify your bank of the return of the check long before the check got back to your bank.
You can ask to see the counterfeit check if you haven't had a chance to look at it. Ask your bank to review the presentation and return history of the check to see if the paying bank was late in making its return. If it was, you and your bank may have an opportunity to claim the return was late.
A couple of added thoughts for you: it's unlikely that your bank could close your accounts at another bank unless you're talking about two branches of the same institution. How did you come to receive the $50,000 check in the first place? Did you sell something that entitled you to receive this sum of money? If so, was the check for considerably more than the selling price? Was there any reason for you to wonder why you got a check for such a sum? Did it come from a lottery you never entered, or from the estate of a relative you never knew? Those are all big red flags for counterfeit checks. They can all be summed up in one thought: it's too good to be true!
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When you endorsed the 