What do these four banks have in common? Besides being “too big to fail” they also are too arrogant to actually give a damn about their customers.
If you love your 2nd Amendment rights and still do business with these 4 banks then your money is being used against you with monetary terrorism.
Yet, not only do these four banks rate as the most complained about financial institutions in the country but they also all have policies in place to punish, deny and/or harrass American’s who DARE to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights. I don’t mean that these banks simply hide under the naive cloak of gun free zones in their establishments. No, these banks have systematically and aggressively attempted to undermine the business of firearms in this country.
Bank of America has twice attacked gun manufacturers with monetary terrorism in recent years. McMillan Firearms Manufacturing were forced to close their accounts last year and transfer their business infrastructure elsewhere simply because they manufactured firearms. Once word initially got out BoA tried to do the two step and say that is not what they were doing and for good measure added in that they support the troops. No really, that’s what they said.
The response from McMillan Group:
In response to Bank of America’s public statement:
The statement we [McMillan] posted was an accurate account of the events that transpired late last week. McMillan Group has been in good standing with B of A and a loyal customer for the past 12 years. We were told that we must finalize all of our accounts because we manufacture firearms.
McMillan cannot speak for Bank of America’s company wide policies, but we can speak out about our personal experiences.
We [McMillan] kindly suggest that if Corporate Bank of America has no policy against conducting business with firearms manufactures, then they should communicate these policies with their regional Vice Presidents and other management.
Oddly enough, BoA did not seem to eager to try and work with their longstanding customer and had hoped that people would simply forget.
Then they go ahead and do it again. But this time it was worse as BoA tried to bankrupt a gun company.
During the Christmas season of 2012, when guns are often purchased as Christmas and other Holiday Gifts, the sales from American Spirit Arms went up. In response to this Bank of America FROZE Spirit Arms accounts for THREE WEEKS starting on December 18th. For nearly a month American Spirit Arms could not access that money and the financial impact nearly sent them under at a time when they should have been the most profitable.
When Joseph Sirochman, owner of American Spirit Arms, contacted BoA he was told by a manager at the bank that the accounts and deposits would be held under “further review” and that, as a policy “we believe you should not be selling gun and parts on the internet.”
I don’t know about you but I don’t think that Bank of America should be allowed to use the word America in their name as their actions are about as un-American as they come.
Wells Fargo is the second most complained about bank. As you can imagine from a bank that calls San Francisco home, they too hold a vile disdain for freedom and the 2nd Amendment.
BMADDOX Enterprises of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, one of the largest class III dealers in the country was looking to expand its business by purchasing another building. After the owner of BMADDOX LLC, Brandon Maddox, went to Wells Fargo for assistance the following event would play out:
Vice President of Business Banking at Wells Fargo, called Friday Nov 2nd to alert Mr. Maddox, owner of BMADDOX ENTERPRISES, that Wells Fargo would not extend business credit or loans to any firearms related business, period. “Your credit is impeccable and your business model is sound, but our corporate legal department will not allow us to extend credit to any business related to firearms. We understand you are fully licensed under federal and state law, although…the corporate directive is still no.”
Once again, when corporate directives are being made in San Francisco, should this stance really surprise anyone?
Chase bank, while being the third most complained apparently strives to be like BoA and Wells and has also followed a policy of trying to bankrupt their own clients. This time the manufacturer was Nordic Components yet Chase put a twist on the script and used an in-between as a fall guy. Namely Intuit Merchant Services which uses Chase as a gateway. The following was posted on the Nordic Components website at the time of the aforementioned incident:
NOTICE: We are unable to process credit card transactions at this time. Intuit Merchant Services has told us that they will NOT process anymore transactions and may put a freeze our accounts because we sell firearms related products. I was told that they are backed by Chase Banks. DO NOT conduct business with these financial institutions if you care about the Constitution of the United States, the Second Amendment or your RIGHTS as a firearms owner. We, as firearms owners, are under attack. I wonder how many of these anti-gun banks received Bail-out money from the current administration?
We are working on getting set up with a firearm friendly processor and hope to be back on line to serve you quickly. Thank You for understanding.
Finally, not to be forgotten is Citibank…good old New York City based Citibank. They’ve had a rather vocal policy on denying gun businesses opportunities to do business with them. This was stated fact when the Nevada Pistol Academy had their accounts forcibly closed.
Citibank spokesman Mark Rodgers publicly stated:
“Citibank’s consumer business has a longstanding policy of not engaging in financial relationships with businesses that manufacture or sell military weapons, military munitions or firearms. In keeping with this policy, the account in question should not have been opened. The customer was notified that we would close the account because it was not in compliance with that policy.”
As a gun owner, as a lover of freedom and as an American, I make sure to avoid companies such as these because I refuse to be complicit in my own subjugation. If we feed our would be oppressors with the funds they need in order to grow “too big to fail” then we are complicit in our own tyranny.
And if enough banks or insurance companies or property owners are pressured by gun control lap dogs of the Obama administration, or George Soros, or Michael Bloomberg, they they can make it very difficult for the businesses that help provide the arms that we have a right to bear in the first place.
Then again…maybe that is exactly the point.
Read article by Tony Olivia at Bullets First
Meet Four Business Owners Squeezed by Operation Choke Point
With no explanation, Brian Brookman last month lost the bank account for his pawn shop.
He had no idea why. Brookman says his store in Grand Haven, Mich., never had been in trouble with federal or state officials. And being in the pawn industry, he was required by law to get a city license every year.
“If there was ever a problem, they wouldn’t renew my license,” Brookman, a former police officer and Army veteran, told The Daily Signal.
After researching his case on the Internet, Brookman says he concluded that his banker, JP Morgan Chase, closed the account because two of his business activities — dealing in vintage coins and selling firearms — were labeled “high risk” by federal bureaucrats as part of an Obama administration initiative called Operation Choke Point.
Critics say Operation Choke Point, so dubbed by Department of Justice officials, seeks to weed out businesses that the White House considers objectionable.
The Justice Department contends the goal of the program is to combat unlawful mass-market consumer fraud, although recent evidence suggests otherwise.
A House report indicates that a primary target of Operation Choke Point is the short-term lending industry. A more expansive list of out of favor, non-financial businesses includes certain ammunition merchants, coin dealers, home-based charities, and sellers of pharmaceutical drugs – also lawful enterprises.
Alden Abbott, the Rumpel senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, describes how Operation Choke Point works: Banks receive notifications from federal regulators, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the agency responsible for insuring bank deposits), that the government considers certain types of businesses “high risk.” Banks then are pressured, though the implied threat of government investigations, to sever ties with customers engaged in those enterprises.
This puts business owners such as Brookman in jeopardy of losing their livelihoods without ever being prosecuted for doing anything illegal. Abbott said:
Government officials have no authority to deny lawful industries access to credit merely because the government dislikes their line of business. That runs counter to the rule of law. Only unlawful activity merits sanction.
Though they consider themselves in peril of losing customers and coming under further government scrutiny, Brookman and three other owners of small businesses spoke with The Daily Signal about being caught up in Operation Choke Point. One is a cancer survivor, one used to run a manufacturing company, and one is an Air Force veteran who moved back to his hometown to open a store.
Each previously came forward through the United States Consumer Coalition, a grassroots, free-market organization that encourages business owners to share their stories.
Read entire article here:
