DOJ Intimidates Banks to drop Ammunition Suppliers, Firearm Sales, Coin Dealers

Gun Watch ^ | 27 May, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Here is a list of businesses claimed to have been targeted with operation "Choke Point".   The administration characterization of "high risk" seems to  translate into "Those I do not like."  These  "High Risk" merchant categories are listed on an fdic.gov site:

Ammunition Sales Cable Box De-scramblers Coin Dealers Credit Card Schemes Credit Repair Services Dating Services Debt Consolidation Scams Drug Paraphernalia Escort Services Firearms Sales Fireworks Sales Get Rich Products Government Grants Home-Based Charities Life-Time Guarantees

Life-Time Memberships Lottery Sales Mailing Lists/Personal Info Money Transfer Networks On-line Gambling PayDay Loans Pharmaceutical Sales Ponzi Schemes Pornography Pyramid-Type Sales Racist Materials Surveillance Equipment Telemarketing Tobacco Sales Travel Clubs

 Some of these companies/activities will be offensive to some.  Others will be astonished that they are included on a list of activities to be targeted for extra-legal punishment through pressure from government regulators.  None of this is aimed at people who are breaking laws.  In fact, that is the whole point of operation "choke point"; to go after people who are operating legally, but doing something that higher ups in the DOJ do not like or approve of.

Some of them, taken together, are positively chilling: ammunition sales, firearms, surveillance equipment, coin dealers?   It is almost a laundry list of "progressive" bigotry, that much of the country finds acceptable.   The list above is from 2011, and appears to focus mostly on Internet sales.

It is a classic case of the authoritarian use of power by the government to crack down on individuals that they do not like, even though no crime was committed.   

This article explains how the pressure is applied:

According to The Hill, the DOJ encourages banks and third party payment processors to drop these high-risk clients by “flooding payments companies that provide processing service to those industries with subpoenas, civil investigative demands, and other burdensome and costly legal demands.”  The American Banker reveals, in their timeline of Operation Choke Point, that the subpoena flood started shortly after Operation Choke Point’s inception in March 2013.  The subpoenas went to banks and payment processors large and small: Everything from the $343 million-endowed National Bank of California to the $220 billion-endowed PNC Financial Services Group.  By fall of 2013, the Justice Department had pressured some banks into settling with the government.  The DOJ used these settlements as a template to further strongarm other banks into compliance.  The DOJ is targeting 30 high-risk industries, as labeled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2011, in a report titled “Managing Risks in Third-Party Payment Processor Relationships.”

The article goes on to tout BitCoins, a digital currency, as a way to work around these regulatory intimidation tactics.

These tactics show how government power is extralegally applied.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[silverleaf]

coin dealers?

travel clubs? Like AARP?

[sheana]

AT one time a person in my family owned a business. There was a ‘cash’ register and a credit card register. ;)

[cuban leaf]

This is a serious problem in Greece. I suspect it will become more of a problem in this country. It’s why I think they would really like to see cash just go away.

It’s one reason I’ve moved back to cash. I use my Costco Amex to buy gas because I get a lot back (about $450 a year) from the gas I buy for my 125 mile round trip daily commute. but I’m trying to use cash for everything else. I LOVE using it at mom and pop places because I KNOW a lot of it is going unreported.

[MrB]

Yep - personally lost a very good living because of Holder’s “preferences” of businesses.

[MrB]

Never forget, nor let any liberal forget,

that gov’t is the only entity that can legally use or threaten to use DEADLY FORCE to impose its will on the citizenry.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I wonder if the Republicans could tangibly threaten the Democrats to back off, by offering that when they are in charge, to “choke point” leftist NGOs, foundations, charities and other radical organizations?

Since few if any of these groups actually make products or provide services, and are wholly dependent on contributions, without banking or credit, or money transfer, they would die out overnight. And a lot of foundations have huge treasuries that they would have to convert to cash.

And the zinger is, since the federal courts have not intervened to stop the Just Us Department, likely with the excuse that these are businesses and not political organizations, all these leftist groups would get the same treatment.

And there are thousands of leftist charities, foundations, and agitator organizations. Relatively few are openly political.

[okie01]

I wonder if the Republicans could tangibly threaten the Democrats to back off, by offering that when they are in charge, to “choke point” leftist NGOs, foundations, charities and other radical organizations?

I recall that, back in 1994, Newt asserted that one of his objectives was to "defund the left". He then described the network of NGOs, foundations and charities that either a.) got their funding from government and b.) were funding the left, in return. This network is well known now, but was a revelation at the time.

Then...as with so many of Newt's ideas, nothing happened.

The left has constructed an elaborate support structure that agitates in its behalf while it illegally launders millions in cash to propagate its re-election...and Republicans appear incapable of doing anything about it.

[Busko]

You are right, these are the actions of fascism by a piece of Sh!t administration. When will the idiots that vote for this kind of crap wake up? This is what we get for not voting in more conservatives that would defend our rights rather than destroying them.

[DCBryan1]

Coin Dealer

THAT is the most worrisome. THEY KNOW something is going down and they want to dilute wealth. Silver and gold IS wealth. The greenish-cloth in your wallet isnt.

Also, if you can't defend your wealth and accumulations (Private property) with a rifle.

YOU DON'T OWN IT!

[Chode]

a little closer every day...

[Lazamataz]

I JUST THOUGHT OF A SOLUTION

Congress can act like Holder and the President and simply make up law. They can issue funds to create a bank that will cater to gun and ammunition sales companies.

Let Holder come after THAT.