Inherited Money From Grandma Who Passed (brazil) But My Mom Trusted It With Her Brother

Location: Oregon, Florida, and Brazil - both of my parents and my older sister are from Brazil but have lived in the US over 30yrs now. I’m 30 yrs old for reference. My grandma (dad’s side) passed over 10yrs ago and recently just had the court close the remainder of one of her accounts amongst all living children and their families. Since my dad passed in 2021, the portion was divided between my mom, my sister, and myself. It was about $20k with 50% going to my mom and the other 50% split between myself and my sister. My mom took the reins on the entire thing because myself and my sister are not super fluent in Portuguese.

About a week before the case closed, my mom mentioned that she doesn’t have any bank accounts in Brazil and decided to use her brother’s banking information for the direct deposit. She mentioned that it was his idea because it can “accrue interest for one month” before he wires it to her here in the US. I told her that didn’t make any sense because most high yield accounts take about 1yr before you see any return and this wasn’t a huge amount of money. She said she already put his banking information and knows he’ll make sure it works out.

My aunt messaged me on Facebook saying that she’s so happy to see my family thriving and hopes that this extra cash came at a helpful time. I didn’t even know the funds had been dispersed so I reached out to my sister and she said she would ask my mom. My mom clarified that yes, the funds cleared and are in her brother’s account and we should see our portion in about a month.

One month later, radio silence. So I brought it up and my mom mentioned that her brother is hesitant to transfer the funds because now it will be taxed as income due to him not being named on the inheritance.

It’s been about 3 months since the funds dispersed. My mom, my sister, and myself never received anything. Any advice? It’s not a huge chunk of money and we don’t necessarily need it, but it’s frustrating because my mom probably needs it more than myself or my sister and she doesn’t even have it.