After finding out I did some research on the issue and wanted to share my thoughts as it probably answers some questions.
First of all I think we should cut Michael some slack, he is clearly the messenger here and if it wasn't for him we would be completely in the dark. I am 100% sure he is trying to do whatever lies within his power. It is so easy for a company going down the shitter to just not communicate anymore and leave everything behind (well in most cases except the funds then).
I don't know the setup and structure of epassporte in detail but i do know a lot about offshore constructions and credit cards. Working with offshore companies and trust companies in between does not make it easier to get such a setup.
Visa debit cards are issued by Visa through financial institutions, mostly banks. These cards are linked to a corporate account which needs to be funded equally or more of the combined balances on the cards. So if you have 100 cards out there with a combined balance of let's say 50k, the bank who issued those cards has a bank account somewhere with a balance of 50k.
The problem with the wallet and visa "accounts" is that money in the wallet is accounted for on the bank account of epassporte self. Therefore epassporte should have no problem paying out those funds.
Your balance on the visa card is different, an equal amount of funds is located on a bank account at the St. Kitts National Bank linked to the big corporate visa account. At this moment this bank account is probably seized or suspended.
The problem is not caused by epassporte itsself, it is created by the fact St Kitts National Bank has either lost their Visa contract or has to deal with another sort of problem: funds being seized because of legal issues.
If the St Kitts national bank indeed lost their visa account that would mean that they are not allowed to issue new Visa cards or offer customers the functionality to withdraw money through visa cards. This has nothing to do with the funds though as the funds are most likely still in the bank, it is just that the option to withdraw through visa is suspended. Such actions are often communicated well in advance with several warnings, in case Visa has the impression St Kitts National Bank has other, probably legal, issues that might a good reason too.
The other option is that St Kitts National Bank seized all their accounts preventing a bank run for example. I find that unlikely. St. Kitts National Bank is part of the ECIC Holdings Ltd which a consortium of 10 banks in the area which recently were in the news for rescuing the TCI Bank which went into forced liquidation. Again your funds should still be with the bank then, the only problem is then that nobody including Visa or epassporte is able to access, in which case Visa has a good reason to suspend the withdrawal. In this case epassporte will probably try to regain access to the funds and find a new Visa issuing bank to continue operations.
The St. Kitts National Bank (or fully: St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd) falls under the Eastern Carribean Central Bank. I couldn't find the warranties and insurances the central bank issues yet but i am pretty sure you can't compare it to western standards.
So in my opinion you can't really blame epassporte at this moment, maybe only for the fact they relied solely on the St Kitts National Bank.
Bitchting at the situation or persons is useless at this moment, the only thing you can do here it withdraw funds on your wallet and be patient till further useful information is released from epassporte (or a newspaper in case you read that the St Kitts National Bank went under supervision or filed bankruptcy which let's hope won't happen)
Please note that I am not affiliated with epassporte in any way, I am just posting my thoughts
More reads:
[1]
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1A1-D9DTKCK80.html
[2]
http://www.eccb-centralbank.org/About/index.asp
[3]
http://www.ecseonline.com/issuer_pro...ional_bank.php
[4]
http://www.ecseonline.com/issuer_pro...Rpt31Mar10.pdf (unaudited quarterly report for Q1 2010 of St. Kitts National Bank)
[5]
http://www.thedominican.net/2010/08/...-tci-bank.html