Brexiteer Nigel Farage had his bank account canceled for political reasons last year. Coutts Bank, part of the NatWest Group, has criticized the British politician for comparing Black Lives Matter rioters to the Taliban, although it admits he is a commercially viable customer. I was fired. His criticism of climate change concerns and his suggestion that “net zero is just plain stupid.” His “support for Donald Trump.” and other expressions deemed offensive to those in power.
The UK has done its best in recent months to crack down on fallacies, including holding a moment of silence, but it is not unique when it comes to demonetization practices.
Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said:
recently said Joe Rogan said numerous tech founders have been debanked under the Biden administration through a politically motivated coordinated effort he calls “Operation Choke Point 2.0.” This is apparently the latest in a series of scandalous Obama Justice Department efforts. In the days following this interview, many crypto entrepreneurs published their debanking stories online.
“wrong politics”
“Debanking means that you, as an individual or as a company, are literally kicked out of the banking system,” Andreessen said, before telling Logan that it's happening all around us: He said that his business partner's father had his bank transactions abolished.
When I asked David Horowitz why, he said,
critic Andreessen said supporters of Islamic extremism and left-wing extremism would have been removed from the bank “for playing bad politics, for saying things that are unacceptable.”
“So David Horowitz, you know, is a Trump supporter,” Andreessen said. “I mean, he's saying all kinds of things. You know, he was very anti-Muslim terrorism. He was very concerned about immigration and things like that.”
Other individuals and groups that have been debanked in recent years are similarly right-wing, which may explain why the Southern Poverty Law Center was debanked.
defended practice.
“There is no constitutional amendment that says the government cannot abolish bank accounts.”
Bank of America in September 2023
canceled bank account John Eastman is the founding director of the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Law and is one of the lawyers also included in the 65 Project for his work with President-elect Donald Trump. Two months later, USAAA Federal Savings Bank Similarly, his bank account was abolished.
Former Nebraska State Treasurer John Murante (Republican)
noticed An editorial last year said Chase had terminated the bank accounts of multiple individuals and organizations, including the Arkansas Family Council, Defense of Freedom, and organizations. Retired General Michael Flynn Junior — On “Mainstream American Views.”
It's been months since JPMorgan Chase & Co. canceled former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's checking account with his faith-based nonprofit Brownback.
reportedly I received an email from Chase indicating that he was a “politically exposed person.”
“Under current banking regulations, after all the reforms over the past 20 years, there is now a category of PEPs called 'politically exposed persons,'” Andreessen told Logan. “We're being asked by financial regulators to get them out and get them out of the banks. We're not allowed to own them.”
According to According to a 2021 Federal Financial Institutions Examination Board document, “In the financial industry, the term PEP is commonly used to refer to foreign nationals who are or have been appointed to prominent public offices, as well as their immediate family members and immediate family members. The term has been applied to domestic individuals who have held prominent public positions as well.
The Financial Action Working Group on Money Laundering, an international organization sponsored by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,
noticed By its own definition, many PEPs, due to their position and influence, can be exploited to commit money laundering crimes and related predicate crimes such as corruption and bribery, or to carry out activities related to the financing of terrorism. He is said to be in a position of gender. . ”
Andreessen suggested that domestic PEP debanking tends to only go in one direction, noting that “I have never heard of anyone on the left being debanked.”
public-private scheme
The technology entrepreneur explained that this politically unilateral mechanism is exercised by a combination of government and private forces.
“There is a constitutional amendment that says the government cannot restrict speech, but there is no constitutional amendment that says the government can't release people's bank deposits,” Andreessen said.
The government relies on private banking institutions to do its dirty work, which creates distance benefits. “The government will say, 'We didn't do it. Private companies did it, and rightly so.'” JPMorgan can decide who it wants to have as customers. ”
Andreessen characterized the political persecution program as “a privatized sanctions regime that forces bureaucrats to do to American citizens what we are doing to Iran: kick them out of the financial system.” Ta.
Andreessen said the “regime” has targeted numerous crypto entrepreneurs since President Joe Biden took office.
“It’s just executive power.”
“This is what's happening with a lot of fintech entrepreneurs and people who are starting some kind of new banking service because they're trying to protect the big banks,” Andreessen said. “By the way, this is also happening in the legal field of economic activity, which they do not like.”
Thank you, Obama
Andreessen suggested that this concerted effort to crush perceived political adversaries through financial pressure began in earnest “about 15 years ago with something called Operation Chokepoint.”
Jeremy Tedesco, Senior Advisor and Senior Vice President of Corporate Engagement, Alliance Defending Freedom
said Members of the March Select Subcommittee on Federal Weaponization:
In the now infamous “Operation Chokepoint,” President Obama's Justice Department and FDIC spearheaded a multi-agency effort to target gun dealers, tobacco dealers, dating services, hard currency dealers, and payday lenders. Targeted the legal industry. After a group of payday lenders sued the FDIC, the filing of the lawsuit and subsequent federal oversight provided a glimpse into the world of financial regulation. The FDIC expanded “reputational risk” to include “any negative publicity involving a third party.” It then worked with the Justice Department and other agencies to pressure financial institutions to deny services to disadvantaged industries. The Department of Justice has issued more than 60 subpoenas. The FDIC and OCC have issued related guidance regarding the reputational risks posed by payment processing for these entities. The FDIC then listed these businesses as “high-risk businesses,” all with the intention of cutting off banks' access to these industries.
Andreessen suggested that the Biden administration has expanded this concept to apply not just to crypto and technology entrepreneurs, but also to political opponents.
“Chokepoint 2.0 is primarily against their political opponents and secondly against the technology startups that are against them,” Andreessen said. “And it's hitting the tech industry hard. About 30 founders have been debanked in the last four years.”
The tech entrepreneur said people he knows who have been effectively unbanked have had to reinvent themselves or get creative with where their money goes “to escape the eye of Sauron.”
Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini,
noticed Elon Musk highlighted Andreessen's comments about him being debanked, suggesting that perhaps far more than 30 individuals in the fast-growing industry may have been debanked. did.
Mr Winklevoss said: “This is a totally illegal and evil act.”
Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong responded to Andreessen's claims:
pay attention“I can confirm this is true. This was one of the most unethical and un-American things to happen in the Biden administration. My guess is that you can find Elizabeth Warren's fingerprints all over it.” (Biden himself probably wasn't aware of it). We're still collecting documents through FOIA requests, so the full story of who was involved and whether they broke any laws will hopefully come to light. ”
Blockdaemon CEO Constantin Richter said:
claimed Bank of America also disbanded his organization.
Due to the nature of debunking, victims have little or no recourse to seek redress.
“You can't sue regulators to fix this. This hasn't gone through any court decisions. It's just raw power. It's just raw executive power,” Andreessen said. “Governments and politicians just decide that things are going to be this way and apply pressure until it happens.”
Worse, “there are no fingerprints,” Andreessen said. The people behind bank demonetization are virtually untouchable.
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