Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo as part of a probe into whether the banks unlawfully terminated customer accounts for political reasons, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., headed by Jeanine Pirro, issued the subpoenas, some dating back to last year, seeking lists of debanked individuals and the banks' explanations for the closures. Prosecutors are examining whether the terminations violated the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, a statute traditionally used to prosecute bank-related fraud. Bloomberg also reported the probe Wednesday.
For the crypto industry, the investigation amounts to a formal government inquiry into what advocates have long called Operation Chokepoint 2.0: a pattern of account closures at major banks during 2022 and 2023 that digital-asset executives said targeted them for their involvement in crypto.
The phrase Operation Chokepoint 2.0 borrows from the original Operation Choke Point, a 2013 Obama-era DOJ program that pressured banks to cut ties with industries officials considered high-risk. Crypto executives applied the label to what they described as a coordinated effort to restrict banking access to digital-asset firms during the Biden administration.
