While some expatriate Americans have been receiving and depositing or cashing their U.S. Economic Impact Payments without a problem, others continue to struggle. Fewer non-U.S. banks are willing to handle checks, while the IRS is still not sending money to expats’ overseas bank accounts...

One of those stories quietly running in the background of the Covid-19 pandemic has been that of the American expats who have struggled to obtain the so-called CARES Act stimulus payments they're supposed to be receiving – even as people who aren't U.S. citizens, and therefore shouldn't be receiving them, have been.

One such person is a former American whom we'll call Franz, who lives in Switzerland, and who renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2019...but received a check anyway...