Operation Choke Point was a secretive and controversial initiative of the United States Department of Justice beginning in 2013 which investigated banks in the United States and the business they did with firearm dealers, payday lenders, and other companies that, while operating legally, were said to be at a high risk for fraud and money laundering.
This operation, disclosed in an August 2013 Wall Street Journal story, was officially ended in August 2017, and the FDIC settled multiple lawsuits by promising to Congress additional training for its examiners and to cease issuing "informal" and "unwritten suggestions" to banks.
Details
Some merchant categories that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) had listed until July 2014 as being associated with high-risk activity include (until the FDIC revised the original policy in July 2014):
Results
In April 2014, Four Oaks Bank settled with the Department of Justice for engaging in the types of activities that Operation Choke Point was intended to stop. According to the complaint (dated January 8, 2014): "As of today...