Wealthy PH couple sues US bank, claiming it sold off their jewelry worth $10 million

Jorge and Stella Araneta have sued JP Morgan for allegedly breaking into their safety deposit box in the bank and selling off $10 million worth of jewelry they had stored in it. FACEBOOK

A wealthy couple from the Philippines has sued JP Morgan for allegedly breaking into their safety deposit box in the bank and selling off $10 million worth of jewelry they had kept in it.

The Aranetas reside in the Philippines but have addresses in Manhattan and Miami where JP Morgan had been sending its bills since they opened their accounts in 2006.

Jorge Araneta is a prominent Filipino businessman who chairs the Araneta Group of Companies, which is into property development, lodging and hospitality, food and dining, entertainment and leisure.

His wife, Stella Marquez Araneta,  is a Colombian pageant director and was Miss Colombia when she was crowned the first Miss International in 1960.

The Aranetas claim that in 2016 the bank started sending its bills to a wrong address, a PO box in Louisiana, and they never saw the invoices or warnings about back-payments. This caused them to fall behind.

The bank allegedly sent warnings that the box’s contents would be removed for nonpayment, and eventually sent a final warning that their boxes would be drilled open and the contents put in storage if payments were not received within 60 days. But those warnings were also sent to the Louisiana address.

In February 2016 the bank forced open four boxes and stored the contents. When the couple learned about this three years later, they paid their back bills.

They said the bank promised that their belongings would be returned, but that ten months later the bank instead auctioned off their jewelry.

They sued JP Morgan last year on several claims, one was dismissed, but other claims of negligence are continuing.