Posted on 03/24/2015 7:04:34 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
Operation “Choke Point” is not new. It began as an outgrowth of the President’s Financial Fraud Task Force in 2009. Choke Point never acquired congressional authority to begin operations though it was started by the DOJ, FDIC, and the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in 2009. It is called “Choke Point” because its main purpose is to choke off lending to industries which are out of favor with the Obama Administration. In essence, if businesses can’t process payments, they can’t survive.
Choke Point operations were first begun against payday lenders in New York by the NY Financial Services Superintendent. The purpose was to “make payday lending, especially in New York, as unappetizing as possible.” The first public notice was by Michael Bresnick at the Exchequer Club in Washington in March of 2013. The Justice Department subpoenaed more than 50 banks and payment processing firms. Quite simply, the American people now have an administration that wants to close off funding to industries it doesn’t like even as it is pushing banks to loan money for marijuana sales.
Hearings concerning the administration’s Choke Point scheme will begin today, held by the House Financial Services Subcommittee. The question is whether there will be any repercussions. The New York Times was more than willing to dispense information concerning the ways in which government was tracking terrorist finances during the Bush administration. But why is the media silent now that the full force of government is being used to destroy the legal employment of honest citizens simply because the Obama Regime does not happen to favor the industries in which these people are working? Is a government which deliberately forces law abiding citizens into unemployment not worthy of news coverage?
Some of the industries being targeted are firearm sales, coin dealers, ammunition sales, payday loans and pharmaceutical sales. Do any of these pose a danger to the average citizen? Is there any justification for the targeted destruction of these businesses by the federal government?
The DOJ has used the intimidation of banks to force processors to drop clients and has employed smear tactics if they don’t comply. The nation’s banks are clearly being told that they will face government harassment, perhaps even financial ruin if they should do business with companies the Obama Administration does not support. It is in fact, befouling the open and free markets of this country, attempting to destroy legal business based on an authority that this government does not have. It is the denial of banking services to companies based solely on political differences. It is a deliberate threat of financial destruction against those in the free market simply because they do not share the “Moral Values” of a socialist administration. Knowing that subpoenas are difficult and expensive to comply with, companies will roll over and submit to federal pressure because they cannot afford to fight it. This leaves the DOJ even going so far as fining these companies and winning “sue and settle” awards through the courts, much like the EPA has done.
When Congress sent a letter requesting the DOJ answer questions about the project, a DOJ official told Congress they did not have to answer any questions about the project, and that the DOJ had no obligation to discuss any aspect of “Choke Point” with Congress at all. This same official even refused to give her name. She was later found to be Deputy Assistant Attorney General Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong. She refuses to discuss her confrontation with congress and responded to questions by referring reporters to DOJ Public Affairs.
As is usual with the Obama Administration, there undoubtedly exist more evasion and lying that may ever be known. At the same time the above named Deputy Assistant Attorney General was refusing to talk to Congress, another DOJ official, Trial Attorney Joel M. Sweet was providing details to bank examiners and financial institutions under the auspices of the Federal Financial Institution Examination Council. The question then becomes, what will the DOJ tell large bankers and examiners that they won’t tell Congress? The next question, at least for me, is why are these people not in jail!
There is bound to be much more to this story and the American public can only hope it will be revealed as the hearings progress.
Time to go back to doing business in cash.
bttt
Time to go back to doing business in cash.
Oh they thought of that too. The Fed’s want the police notified if you remove more than $5,000 of your own money from your bank account so that you can be ‘questioned’ about why you ‘need’ so much money in the form of Cash.
Nonsense - it is trying to get banks to accept deposits from legal marijuana sellers, in the face of opposition from anti-pot zealots happy to use the same tactics decried here.
Op choke point cost me a LOT of income by “defining” my employer out of business.
Your fascist government at work.
Indeed. I think my tag line applies in spades here.
The basis of the reason for Op CP targeting our customers was demonstrably racist (on Holder’s part) as well.
Our customers’ customer base was probably 90% minority,
and just like when Asians provide in-demand services to poor communities,
they were charged with “taking advantage”.
The gov’t is cracking down on using cash too.
“He (the Beast out of the Earth) also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.” Rev 13:16-18
It is said that 666 is the representation for the Quran. For instance, I read a report about a Muslim (in Oklahoma?) who had 666 on his license plate because he said it was the symbol for the Quran.
I’d bet a million bucks that this regime headed by the foreign enemy combatant in our White House - who was illegally put there by his global Islamist and communist allies whose agenda he has faithfully served while acting as their puppet - is NOT doing “Operation Chokepoint” on Islamist mosques, imams, “charities”, etc.
Just like Obama’s half-brother’s Muslim Brotherhood “charity” (providing money for the Sudan terrorists carrying out genocide) received expedited tax-exempt status from Lois Lerner, while Lerner targeted, harassed, and withheld tax-exempt status from True The Vote...
"666" is frequently thought to refer to Nero, who persecuted early Christians without mercy.
Which the IRS can then seize because depositing too much cash is suspicious, as either money laundering or tax evasion.
A guy that sells Hookah’s said he’s a target of Choke Point
Must be nice to be an obama. The cushiest job in the world and to be so spiteful and vindictive as to cause regular hard working Americans to lose their jobs.
Another example was last week when michelle got someone on TV fired because he said she looked like a monkey. He essentially told the truth.
The Obamas will never have the class required to be in the position they’re in and neither one of them has an ounce of love in their hearts.
So he was fired for insulting monkeys?
someone please explain how it’s acceptable for banks not to provide services to some customers whose actions they find objectionable...
yet a baker, florist, or any other non-homo-friendly business does not have the same choice?
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