We're so powerless in situations such as this. In the USA, I made a bank transfer to my landlord (around a decade ago) that never hit his account. Every day for about five days, I called my bank to get help. Each person said they'd released the funds for transfer. Each day, nothing changed.

On or around the fifth day, someone finally told me that OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) had seized the funds. The best I can guess is that this was due to my landlord having an Arabic-sounding name (you know, cause "terrorism").

I went on the OFAC website and downloaded a form to contest the issue and documented everything. The letter I received in response said they had no record of the case number that I submitted. I realized, in that moment, that I would have to invest far more time, energy, and emotional hit points than I was willing to spend for $1500. I changed how I paid rent and got money orders that I then manually deposited in the landlord's account at a local bank branch for the rest of the time I was there. I didn't pursue the case. I wrote it off as a loss.

This is when it really, truly hit me (though I'd known viscerally for years) that I could not stand up to the government. I'm not advocating not fighting back. I'm advocating picking your battles. I felt very small and meek when this happened. I only gave up because I value money less than I value privacy or speech or time (I'm privileged to be able to say this, I know). In terms of fighting bureaucracy, we're completely alone and have to be extremely dedicated or basically cornered, as this guy is, to make it worth it to fight back. And even then, it's highly likely that, like this guy, you won't be able to get justice.