Because of his age????

Standard question actually as so many elderly fall victim to extortion schemes sadly.

The fine print on every new account agreement...that nobody reads.
"At the moment of deposit, the funds become the property of the depository bank. Thus, as a depositor, you are in essence a creditor of the bank. Once the bank accepts your deposit, it agrees to refund the same amount, or any part thereof, on demand." The part that gets overlooked...."the funds become the property of the depository bank." You are giving them your money to do with as they please....basically. When you want it back if it's larger sums it could take them time to recall that money as it's likely been loaned out or invested. This is an interesting article...but it doesn't take into account the fact that they basically changed the "Fractional Reserve" percentage to zero recently. Convenient. "In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve reduced the reserve requirement ratio to zero across all deposit tiers..." The amount they HAD to have on hand & available to depositors then became...ZERO.