Need help with wrongful SDIRA distribution

[Barrie Hasselbalch]

My friend is a real estate investor who had an SDIRA account with Vantage IRA out of scottsdale, AZ. In January of 2014 he filed an annual report and paid his annual fees. Unfortunately, in October of 2014 my friend was arrested, without somebody to continue to manage his SDIRA account for him. In 2018, after four years of no reports and membership payments, Vantage IRA sent him a 1099 notice saying that they had distributed the full amount last reported in 2014.

Additionally, my friend filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy July of 2014, shortly before his arrest.

With this being said, my friend never received the disbursement, Vantage IRA is still the member of the 7 LLC's contained within the account, and the LLC's were never closed. Which, of course, means that Vantage still has the money!

My question is how can my friend reverse this wrongful (and possibly inaccurate) disbursement of his Vantage IRA?

Any help here would be appreciated. Unfortunately he is still incarcerated pending an appeal on his case and I am not the professional real estate investor that he is. Due to his lack of communication ability he has to work through third parties such as myself to obtain this critically needed information. If anybody has any referrals to professional help (if it is needed), that would be of great help to us.

Thanks so much!

, 

[Dmitriy Fomichenko]

@Barrie Hasselbalch,

If the IRA custodian closed his IRA, they don't have his money. You indicated that his IRA owned an interest in some LLCs. When Vintage IRA resigned as his IRA custodian and he did not move the assets to another IRA, this means that these assets are now his personal assets. The distribution had to be reported on this tax return, and taxes and penalties had to be paid. He might have to go back and amend tax returns for those years. Based on your description, it does not appear to be a wrongful distribution. When he opened an account with an IRA custodian, he had certain responsibilities, such as paying annual custodian fees and reporting the values of the assets the IRA owned annually. If he failed to do so, he breached the agreement, and as a result, his IRA was closed. I agree with @Chris Seveney that he doesn't have any chance of fixing anything with a custodian and needs to focus on making sure tax returns are correct and assets are moved to his personal name. 

This is not tax or legal advice; engage those professionals.