Peter had put his life savings of about $6 million into accounts at three small banks in China's central Henan province.
He says he hasn't been able to access them since April.
The 45-year-old entrepreneur asked us to call him Peter for security reasons.
He's from the eastern city of Wenzhou and is just one of thousands of depositors who have been fighting to recover their savings from at least six banks in rural provinces in central China.
When he tried to access his accounts online, a statement would pop up on the homepage informing him that the website was under maintenance and services would be unavailable for a while, Peter told
The trouble began in April, when four banks in Henan suspended cash withdrawals.
The trouble began in April, when four banks in Henan suspended cash withdrawals.
In China, local banks are only permitted to obtain deposits from their home customer base, but authorities say that "third-party platforms" were used to acquire funds from depositors outside the region.
In Peter's case, for example, his hometown is over 700 miles away from the banks in Henan.
The national banking regulator has accused a major shareholder of the four banks of illegally attracting money from savers.
"Henan New Fortune Group, a shareholder of the four village banks, has illegally absorbed the public's funds through internal and external collusion, the use of third-party platforms,
and fund brokers," the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission told state-run Xinhua News Agency in May.