Robinhood froze my ~$160k account 18+ months ago after misreading a police email
I’m posting from a throwaway because this whole thing has been a nightmare and I don’t want it tied back to my main.
About a year and a half ago my ex, who was very abusive, filed an online report saying I was selling weed after I finally left her. I’m in Texas, so the cops went all in. They arrested me, searched my house, took all my electronics and paperwork, and even towed both of my cars and ripped through them. The only “drugs” they found were legal CBD gummies and a couple of CBD drinks I bought from a shop by a college, and I had receipts for everything. Their own field test and then the lab both came back with no THC. I was never charged with anything.
They still tried to take my stuff using civil forfeiture, so I hired a lawyer and spent around 50k fighting it. That case is now over. All my property has been returned and there are no charges and no open criminal cases against me.
During the investigation, one cop sent a generic “this person is under investigation” email to all my banks and to Robinhood. It was not a court order, not a levy, nothing that said “freeze this account.” All of my banks and credit card companies ignored it. Only Robinhood decided to lock my brokerage account. The account is around 160k, mostly in three big stocks I’ve held since the COVID crash.
Since then, the police and the city attorney have put in writing that there is no hold, no lien, no legal freeze, and that they don’t plan to go after my Robinhood funds at all. They’ve looked at the original email and basically said Robinhood misread it and treated it like something it isn’t.
Robinhood has kept the account frozen for more than 18 months now. Every time I contact support, I get the same copy-paste answer about “our team is reviewing this, we can’t give a timeline.” I’ve filed complaints with regulators. The lawyer who handled the forfeiture case has a hearing on the 15th where he’s going to ask a judge to officially say there was never any freeze or lien, but he doesn’t really know Robinhood/FINRA stuff and I don’t have money for a second lawyer. Meanwhile I’m sitting on credit card debt and money I owe family while my savings are locked.
Can Robinhood legally keep my account frozen this long when there’s no court order, no lien, and no seizure according to the city attorney and police, or is this something I can realistically take to arbitration or court and expect to win?
What legal steps, if any, actually exist to force them to act instead of just sending the same “under review” response? For the hearing on the 15th, I don’t even know what my lawyer should be asking the judge for beyond some kind of order clearly saying there was never any freeze or lien and nothing on the government side stopping Robinhood from releasing my funds. I’ve also wondered if it’s even possible for a judge to order the police or city to send some kind of “release” email when the police are saying there was never a freeze in the first place.
If I do end up in arbitration or a lawsuit, I’d like to know whether there’s any realistic chance of getting extra damages for how long this has gone on and the financial mess it’s caused, or if it usually just ends with the account finally being opened. And I’d really appreciate guidance on what type of lawyer actually handles this kind of Robinhood/FINRA situation and how to find one who knows what they’re doing.