It was a wire transfer - money isn't coming back. 

@qbteachmt you haven't disputed the initital point in PUB 550 that explicitly states, and I quote: 

"Insolvency of contractor. You can take a bad debt deduction for the amount you deposit with a contractor if the contractor becomes insolvent and you are unable to recover your deposit. If the deposit is for work unrelated to your trade or business, it is a nonbusiness bad debt deduction."

Page 54: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p550.pdf