Stripe is holding my funds without reason.

I opened a merchant account with STRIPE.COM with the intention of processing credit-cards for my business . This is a web design & development business that I have operated as a sole-proprietorship for over 10 years.

I provided all forms of verification to STRIPE including my SSN, Driver's license, and even my personal credit-card number.

To make sure things were working correctly - I decided to process these Visa Gift-Cards which I had received over Christmas using my Stripe account (BIG MISTAKE). I have done this with my other merchant account (HELCIM.COM) and I have never had ANY problems.

I processed the cards - which I STILL HAVE IN MY POSSESSION:
Date: December 26th, 2020 - 4214 **** **** 6181, for the amount of $500

I thought everything was fine until I started getting emails from Stripe saying that transactions were not authorized. I called Merchant card services (the phone-number on the back of my Gift-Cards immediately) and spoke to a woman named Linda. She confirmed that there was NO UNAUTHORIZED transactions, and that the funds had been paid out to Stripe.

So #1 - STRIPE LIED ABOUT "Unauthorized transactions" and refuses to show proof.
And #2. Now they refuse to deposit the funds into my bank account.

I CAN PROVE that I was the card-holder because my IP address was logged by Stripe, and my IP address is still the same.

Both transactions were approved by Stripe on December 26th, and were supposed to be deposited into my bank account on January 3rd. Now Stripe is still holding my funds and refuses to release them.

THIS IS THEFT!!!! They cannot be allowed to do this. I have not committed fraud and I am not a f*****g criminal.

If you are even thinking about opening a Stripe account I would strongly suggest AGAINST IT - this company is an absolute joke and I should have known better - THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE A PHONE NUMBER.