Kraken account “under review”? Scammed by friend?

I lent a friend of mine about .5 btc last year when it was around 20k USD. He said he’d pay me back within 2 weeks, yet it’s been over 10 months now and obviously btc is worth much more so his debt in USD has more than doubled. He claims his kraken account has been “under review” and he’s been struggling to get their support to straighten it out. He even showed me legitimate emails from their support to back up the claim. Am i getting bamboozled or is this something that can actually happen on an exchange?

In his defense he has been able to pay me a little bit of cash here and there to chip away at the debt which is the only reason I’m not entirely convinced I’m getting scammed.