Posted on 05/01/2014 10:51:50 AM PDT by jazusamo
Porn stars say that JP Morgan Chase bank has been quietly closing their bank accounts.
The skin flick starlets, including Penthouse Pet Teagan Presley, “Cougarland” actress Veronica Avluv and “White House Orgy” actress Layton Benton, are using Twitter to bash the bank over a recent rash of account closure notices.
Presley, whose real name is Ashley Erickson, said her April 16 letter gave no reason for her termination. The bank also is closing her husband’s personal account and their two business accounts, including one for their studio Skinworxxx, she said.
“I’m just upset and still in shock it’s even happening. I’m not doing anything illegal,” Presley told the Daily News.
Porn is a declining but lucrative industry, not so much for those on screen, but it’s still a billion dollar industry.
It’s apparently one of about 30 industries that the US Justice Department is choking out of banks to shut them down entirely via Operation Choke Point, according to Vice News .
In 2011, the FDIC listed 30 “ merchant categories that have been associated with high-risk activity ,” likening pornography to Ponzi schemes, racist materials, “lifetime guarantees,” and sales of fireworks and tobacco.
But it’s Operation Choke Point that researchers say is the force behind banks threatening to close payday lenders’ accounts unless they go out of business.
At a March hearing before a Senate Banking subcommittee, the Washington Post reported, Senator David Vitter (R-La.) said “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. I find that deeply troubling because it has no statutory basis, no statutory authority.”
The FDIC lists the 30 industries that have been targeted. They are:
- 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
It seems that rather than go to the trouble of passing laws to target industries that the government has deemed politically incorrect, or even getting a regulation through an agency that can later be challenged in court, the government is simply leaning on banks to cut off accounts. Over time, if enough banks cooperate, these industries would go away or at least be forced farther underground.
There are certainly some skeevy, but legal, industries on that list: telemarketers, purveyors of racist materials, and so forth. And isn’t it strange that while some states are legalizing pot, the FDIC is targeting tobacco sales?
Two of the items on the list ought to rise even more concern than the closure of porn star bank accounts: ammunition sales and firearm sales.
Law-abiding, non-porn star Americans purchase both firearms and ammunition online every single day. Not only are they part of a legal industry, they are part of a legal industry that is enshrined in the Constitution as a civil right. The Obama administration has been hostile to the Second Amendment from the beginning, and President Obama himself infamously told gun control supporters at the Brady Center that he was working on their behalf “under the radar.”
Was Operation Choke Point the “under the radar” scheme that he was talking about? Is Operation Choke Point part morality police, part skeevy government game to disarm Americans?
If a porn star decides to sue JP Morgan Chase for closing their account, the discovery process should turn up some very interesting stuff.
To those who don’t understand the need for a currency not controlled by the fascists (i.e. BitCoin), this situation should be illustrative.
Teagan Presley today, Sarah Palin tomorrow.
How can the list of ‘30’ not having gambling sites on it?
Off shore, overseas of domestic.
Paging Harry Reid, oh that’s right, pass on those.
No Sarah is getting a bit old although still a doll in my book
The reach of the fascists grows, like ripples in a pond. When the ripples reach your world, then you see what they are about. Stupid leftists getting hit now.
re: Porn Stars: Attorney General Eric Holder May Have Closed Your Bank Accounts (plus guns & ammunition)
Well, we never had this particular problem when Bill Clinton was President.
Those categories are wide enough to enable them to get any account closed.
Was there any money on deposit. One thing to close an accounts and deny services. Totally another to also to take another person’s savings then activity to generate that saving wasn’t illegal
They already have. My brother had his Chase card denied because the item was a firearm.
Plumbers
Rodeo clowns
Grizzly moms
Neurosurgeons
Dads of neurosurgeons
Arrowhead collectors
Raw milk sellers
Gun dealers
Ranchers
Cowboys
Indians
Porn stars
I read an article on this yesterday though it was only regarding closing porn star accounts.
The bank sent letters informing them they had x number of days to close their accounts and if they didn’t the bank would inactivate the account.
Video makers
Film makers
:: but it’s still a billion dollar industry. ::
Sounds like the gummint should have taken that industry over instead of health care (”start small”).
Although, on second thought, the term “ObamaPorn” kinda turns the stomach, eh?
Google:
+banks+houston, tx
We have lots of banks. Lots.
Can I ask a stupid question? How is this legal?
I’m not going to defend pornography, but, it’s a legal business. How can they decide that certain legal businesses will be denied banking services?
If there is money laundering, etc. going on in certain businesses, shouldn’t they do investigations of those as they gather such evidence? It gets me that they can target an entire industry and say, shut down their bank accounts, because there are some bad apples in that business.
Maybe I’m missing something also, because it sounds as if they are targeting employees who work in these businesses too. They aren’t just going after the “big fish”.
I’m sadly surprised if this is legal.
True; now they have to do everything under the table, whereas with Bill it was all under the desk.
The problem as stated in the article is the Justice Dept going to the regulators (FDIC) to cut off credit and use other tactics.
The FDIC is targeting the 30 categories listed. That could include all FDIC insured banks eventually.
three things they really want to get rid of. ammo sales, gun sales, and surveillance equipment.
“ponzi schemes”. funny, govt runs their own - social security, obamacare, fractional reserve lending. doesn’t want anyone else running them though.
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