Nicki Radzely is a young mother and entrepreneur who was living her dream—raising a family and building a business out of a center-hall colonial in Montclair, N.J., that could have been lifted from the pages of a glossy magazine. Then, late on April 18, as she was driving her children to baseball practice, Radzely got an urgent message asking that she call her neighborhood JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker. The woman wanted to know if she had done any business with North Korea.
Radzely, whose startup, Doddle & Co., sells an upscale baby pacifier called the Pop, couldn’t help laughing. She assured the caller the answer was an unequivocal no. The mirth ended the next day when she discovered that her business ATM card wouldn’t work. A teller told her the account appeared to have been blocked. Radzely set up a second call with her JPMorgan Chase business banker, who said the bank had decided to end its relationship with Doddle. Radzely says she was told to come in and pick up a cashier’s check for roughly $150,000.
