Have you read any of the comments here before writing your own? What is PayPal getting away with? How would another bank have acted differently? What regulation do you think applies to banks but not to PayPal in this situation? They are all beholden to the PATRIOT Act, and to the IRS; PayPal is also beholden to 50 different states' Money Transmitter licensing regulations. None of them want to be a conduit for international money laundering.
1) he would not be able to get an actual US bank account without getting the legal issues in order;
2) sweeping funds would not prevent either his tax problems or visa problems, which likely are much more serious than simply the locked money.
Sweeping funds would be a nice-to-have - it would have helped, sure, but it's not really a solution.
