Thread: Obama Slaps Gun Sellers With “High Risk” Label Cutting Off Their Lines Of Credit, Fre

Obama Slaps Gun Sellers With “High Risk” Label Cutting Off Their Lines Of Credit, Freezing Assets

Posted on 19 May, 2014 by clyde



WASHINGTON – Gun retailers say the Obama administration is trying to put them out of business with regulations and investigations that bypass Congress and choke off their lines of credit, freeze their assets and prohibit online sales.
Since 2011, regulators have increased scrutiny on banks’ customers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2011 urged banks to better manage the risks of their merchant customers who employ payment processors, such as PayPal, for credit card transactions. The FDIC listed gun retailers as “high risk” along with porn stores and drug paraphernalia shops.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has launched Operation Choke Point, a credit card fraud probe focusing on banks and payment processors. The threat of enforcement has prompted some banks to cut ties with online gun retailers, even if those companies have valid licenses and good credit histories.


http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines...reezing-assets


http://gopthedailydose.com/2014/05/1...eezing-assets/

Barry prefers that only Al-Qaeda and Drug cartels are armed to the teeth as he disarms AmeriKa

FDIC puts credit squeeze on gun sellers...

'Operation Choke Point'...

CHIPOTLE: Don't bring guns in our stores...

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Drudge Report

FDIC puts credit squeeze on gun sellers...



Targeted? Gun sellers say ‘high risk’ label from feds cuts off banking options, restricts business

Gun retailers say the Obama administration is trying to put them out of business...

The Washington Times|By Kelly Riddell

• Black Rifle Armory in Henderson, Nevada, had its bank accounts frozen this month as the bank tried to determine whether any of Black Rifle’s online transactions were suspicious.

• In 2012, Bank of America suddenly dropped the 12-year account of McMillan Group International, a gun manufacturer in Phoenix, even though the company had a good credit history, the owner said. Gun parts maker American Spirit Arms in Scottsdale, Arizona, received similar treatment by Bank of America, the country’s largest banking institution.

“This seems to be happening with greater frequency and to many more dealers,” said Joe Sirochman, owner of American Spirit Arms. “At first, it was the bigger guys — gun parts manufacturers or high-profile retailers. Now the smaller mom-and-pop shops are being choked out, and they need their cash to buy inventory. Freezing their assets will put them out of business.”

Choking off access to banks
After McMillan Group owner Kelly McMillan publicized Bank of America’s action on his Facebook account, he found that thousands of small gun-shop owners across the country were in the same situation. Banks were either dropping them, freezing their accounts or refusing to process their online sales, so he opened a credit card processing company for the gun industry called McMillan Merchant Solutions.
“Four generations of my family have been in this industry. This is my way to give back,” said Mr. McMillan, adding that many of his customers were denied banking access because of the nature of their business. “This is an attempt by the federal government to keep people from buying guns and a way for them to combat the Second Amendment rights we have. It’s a covert way for them to control our right to manufacture guns and individuals to buy guns.”
BankUnited N.A., which dropped Top Gun Firearms Training & Supply in Miami from its customer list, declined to comment.
In a statement to The Washington Times, Bank of America said: “We would not deny banking services to an organization solely on the basis of its industry.”
The banking giant blamed a misunderstanding with the Arizona gun manufacturers McMillan Group International and American Spirit Arms.
However, the American Banking Association, the industry’s advocacy group in Washington, said businesses deemed “risky” will be frozen out of the financial system if the Justice Department continues Operation Choke Point because the regulatory burden and risk of investigation will be too great for less-specialized banks to bear.
“We’re being threatened with a regulatory regime that attempts to foist on us the obligation to monitor all types of transactions,” Richard Riese, a senior vice president at the American Bankers Association, said in the April 28 issue of American Banker. “All of this is predicated on a notion that the banks are a choke point for all businesses.”
In an interview with The Times, Mr. Riese said the cost of doing business with gun retailers outweighs the benefits for some banks, given that regulators deem the industry as “risky,” state laws vary on the sale of guns and ammunition, and the Justice Department’s enforcement.
The Independent Community Bankers of America, an association for small banks, said enforcement actions from the Justice Department are too broad and overly aggressive.
“While preventing fraud is a top concern for community banks, it needs to be balanced with ensuring that businesses and consumers that operate in accordance with applicable laws can still access payment systems,” bankers association President Camden Fine told the Justice Department in an April 7 letter. “ICBA requests that the DOJ suspend Operation Choke Point immediately and focus its resources directly on businesses that may be violating the law, rather than targeting banks providing payment services.”
Justice’s operation threatens to “close access to the financial system to law-abiding businesses, because the mere prospect of an enforcement action is sufficient to cause financial institutions to restrict access to their payment systems to only established companies that present low risks,” the organization said.

‘No statutory authority’
Regulations on the financial industry have increased over the past few years, said Thomas P. Vartanian, chairman of Dechert LLP, a global law firm specializing in regulatory and financial matters.
He noted the chilling effect of overregulation by the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, an interagency behemoth that includes the departments of Commerce, Justice, Labor, Education, Homeland Security and Justice along with the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Secret Service, the FBI, the Social Security Administration and the Federal Trade Commission.
“The key to effective regulation is the balancing between too little and too much regulation,” Mr. Vartanian said. “The problem here is that there are now so many regulators, including the Department of Justice, with their fingers on the scales on that balancing act.”
Congressional Republicans say the Obama administration is using its regulatory powers to shutter industries it doesn’t like. Last year, 31 Republicans accused the Justice Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. of intimidating banks and payment processors to “terminate business relationships with lawful lenders.”
In a March hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs subcommittee on consumer protection, Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican, complained that several payday lenders — another industry labeled “risky” by the administration — were being dropped by their banks in his home state.
“There is a determined effort from [the Justice Department] to the regulators to cut off credit and use other tactics to force [payday lenders] out of business,” Mr. Vitter said. “I find that deeply troubling because it has no statutory basis, no statutory authority.”
In a House hearing in April, FDIC acting General Counsel Richard Osterman defended his agency’s definition of what constitutes a “risky” business — subject to money laundering or other criminal behavior — but made it clear that no bank is outright prohibited from serving any such companies.
“We have actually put out a policy statement on this issue to make it very clear from the very top that as long as financial institutions are properly managing their relationships and the risks, they’re neither prohibited nor discouraged from providing these services,” Mr. Osterman said.
“Basically, what we’re saying is, these types of programs can be, can involve high-risk activities that could create litigation risk and reputation risk for financial institutions,” he said. “So, they need to do due diligence to ensure that the folks who they’re banking are acting in a safe and sound manner.”
But the cost of that due diligence, coupled with the threat of a lawsuit for doing business with a customer in an industry the government has defined as risky, is having a chilling effect on legitimate companies such as gun dealers, said Mr. Weinstock, the Hunton & Williams lawyer.
“We are one of the most heavily regulated industries in America,” said Mr. Sirochman of American Spirit Arms. “We have to ship our guns to another federal licensed dealers for pickup. The people that are picking up the rifles have to go through a background check to make sure they don’t have any felonies. You can’t own a gun or pass the background check if you do.
“All this is, is an assault on our Second Amendment rights.”

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Thousands Of Gun Retailers Have Had Their Bank Accounts Forcibly Closed

May 20, 2014

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Binaryloop | I've lived all over the US and found that most Americans love liberty but, get fooled into partisan politics. My goal is to wake people up and help them see it's not about left or right -- it's about freedom!

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Opinions from Liberty Crier contributors and members are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Liberty Crier.


Texas Congressman Steve Stockman has demanded that the Obama administration suspend the Justice Department’s “Operation Choke Point,” in which government agents are pressuring banks to close the accounts of legal and law-abiding businesses engaged in commerce contrary to the political views of Barack Obama.

“The Justice Department has launched Operation Choke Point, a credit card fraud probe focusing on banks and payment processors. The threat of enforcement has prompted some banks to cut ties with online gun retailers, even if those companies have valid licenses and good credit histories,” The Washington Times reported Monday morning.

“Under Obama’s ‘Operation Choke Point’ banks are complaining that government agents are threatening them because they service legal businesses engaged in legal commerce. Often the customer is a gun retailer or other businesses that poses no risk, but differs with Obama’s political agenda”, said Stockman.

Thousands of gun retailers have had their bank accounts forcibly closed, despite engaging in no illegal activity whatsoever. “This is just the latest example of the Obama administration exploiting executive power to target political opponents. It would appear the only purpose of Operation Choke Point is the choke the life out of businesspeople with political views that may differ from the President,” said Stockman.

Thousands of gun retailers have had their bank accounts forcibly closed [continued]

Stockman slams Justice Department scheme to stamp out businesses Obama disagrees with WASHINGTON -- Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX 36) demanded the Obama administration suspend the Justice Department’s “Operation Choke Point,” in which government agents are pressuring banks to close the accounts of legal and law-abiding businesses engaged in commerce contrary to the political views of Barack Obama. “(T)he Justice Department has launched Operation Choke Point, a credit card fraud probe focusing on banks and payment processors. The threat of enforcement has prompted some banks to cut ties with online gun retailers, even if those companies have valid licenses and good credit histories,” The Washington Times reported Monday morning. “Under Obama’s ‘Operation Choke Point’ banks are complaining that government agents are threatening them because they service legal businesses engaged in legal commerce. Often the customer is a gun retailer or other businesses that poses no risk, but differs with Obama’s political agenda,” said Stockman. Thousands of gun retailers have had their bank accounts forcibly closed, despite engaging in no illegal activity whatsoever. “This is just the latest example of the Obama administration exploiting executive power to target political opponents. It would appear the only purpose of Operation Choke Point is the choke the life out of businesspeople with political views that may differ from the President,” said Stockman. “Unable to pass gun control in Congress Obama is seeking to stamp out gun ownership through the kind of threats and harassment you’d expect from Third World dictators or Mafia bosses,” said Stockman. “Targeting the bank account of gun retailers engaged in peaceful and legal commerce is a blatant violation of civil liberties. Under Obama the Unites States are becoming a banana republic. The Obama administration must suspend Operation Choke Point and instead focus its resources on criminal enterprises,” said Stockman. -30- http://2013-tx36.congressnewsletter....6310.36929.678

Read more at http://libertycrier.com/thousands-gu...B3ir0VCDVk2.99

Wake Up America

Check Out The Administration’s Latest Backdoor Effort To Control Gun Sales

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By Mike Miller 7 hours ago



In 2013, Barack Obama’s Justice Department launched Operation Choke Point, which it said it would use to “monitor” banks and other financial institutions who process transactions for payday loan businesses and other online lenders the administration considers open to fraudulent activities.
And now? The operation is reportedly being used against banks who do business with other types of companies the administration deems “high risk.” Among them: porn stores, escort services and drug paraphernalia shops.
And gun dealers. Yeah, gun dealers.

That means that gun shops that offer their products online and use a third-party company such as PayPal to handle credit card transactions are increasingly not worth the risk.

Already, gun retailers in Florida, Nevada and Arizona have experienced the fallout of heavy-handed government tactics – from banks freezing their accounts and refusing to process their credit card transactions to dropping their accounts altogether.

As reported by The Washington Times, the owner of a firearms supply company in Miami received a notice from his local bank saying it was dropping his online business:

“Unfortunately your company’s line of business is not commensurate with the industries we work with.”

The National Rifle Association says it is monitoring the situation but cannot yet confirm that “the federal government has an official policy of using financial regulators to drive firearm or ammunition companies out of business.”
Kudos to the NRA for its measured response, but if the Obama administration has taught us anything over the last five years, it’s that it will stop at virtually nothing to implement its agenda.

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/05/1402...rol-gun-sales/