Bart Daley and his employees at Capitol Quality Corp watched in horror the reports from San Bernardino of the mass shooting carried out by two Islamic terrorists. Fourteen people were killed in the attack. Twenty-two others were injured.
Four hours after the attack began, police pursued and stopped a black SUV carrying Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, a married couple, and after a fierce gun battle killed the two Islamic extremist.
Daley watched the unfolding events and as he says, “I made the difficult decision to arm members of my management team to provide a level of defense for our employees against the current rash of violent extremism that has ravaged our communities.” That very afternoon, Daley went to Shooters World and purchased a handgun. Little did he know that making that decision would cost him a business relationship with Suntrust Bank.
A week later, Daley attempted to pay his liability insurance and his Suntrust card was declined. When he called to inquire as to the problem he was told, “pursuant to the terms and conditions of your account agreement, recent purchase activity was reviewed and determined to be unacceptable and as such, Suntrust has chosen to end our relationship and the proceeds from your accounts will be mailed to you within 30 days.”
Daley was stunned. He had just deposited over $17,000 the day before. Fortunately, payroll for his company and employees had processed shortly before Suntrust closed the account. But for any small business, a bank withholding funds, as Suntrust was doing, can have devastating consequences.
Since being informed that his money “would be mailed within 30 days,” Daley has scrambled to gather enough cash to keep his business running.
But, the real shocker for Daley came when he visited the Suntrust Bank location on Hwy 19 and asked what ‘recent purchase activity’ triggered the account closure? “I was informed that my purchase at Shooters World, a local Tampa-area firearms retailer, was not an acceptable purchase,” says Daley.
This is not the first time a local Hernando County business has had an account closed by Suntrust Bank over guns. The same thing happened to American Gun and Pawn in March of this year.
It is no secret that every major national bank is under pressure from the federal government to target certain businesses, considered high risk for criminal activity, and deter their operations. It is well documented that the federal government, specifically the Obama Administration, has pressured banks to drop clients that they term high risk. The official name of the program is called “Operation Choke Point.” Maybe Suntrust Bank, in bowing to the federal pressure, is just being overly aggressive.
The program was started under Attorney General Eric Holder’s regime at the Department of Justice with the help of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The DOJ publicly acknowledged this program on March 20, 2013 in a Washington, D.C. speech by Michael Bresnick who was the executive director of the DOJ’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Bresnick stated that “Operation Choke Point” aimed to stop banks from providing services to scammers.
Unfortunately, stopping scammers is not how “Operation Choke Point” has actually been used in Realville. The problem with “Operation Choke Point” is that it is enforced in a way that not only targets criminals, but also targets law-abiding businesses that the Obama Administration deems risky i.e. gun shops and gun manufacturers. According to The Washington Times, several firearm businesses over the last few years have reported sudden disruptions of their relationships with their banks and they attribute this to “Operation Choke Point.”
In the case of Bart Daley and Capitol Quality Corp, a company not involved in the firearms industry, it appears they may have been caught up in the wide net of “Operation Choke Point” simply for purchasing a firearm. And as far as our research can determine, this may be the first reported action taken by Suntrust Bank over the purchase of a firearm.
Capitol Quality Corp opened in September 2015. For Bart Daley, who previously worked for Franklin First Financial, it was a life long dream to open his own business. Capitol Quality Corp audits mortgage companies to make sure they are in compliance with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan regulations. You would think that if the government trusts Daley to do audits, then Suntrust and the government should trust him to own and possess a firearm at his place of business.
Daley voiced his frustration with Suntrust’s cancellation of his business account by writing a letter, titled ‘Beware Suntrust Bank,’ to all his business associates (see below).
“Suntrust’s actions have caused us great distress because we were in the middle of leasing new office space in Tampa and now don’t have access to the funds needed to complete the transaction,” said Daley.
A Suntrust Bank employee did confirm Daley’s story of initially being told the Shooters World purchase was ‘not an acceptable purchase.’ But, that same employee went on to say that there were other purchases on Daley’s account that Suntrust deemed unacceptable on a business account. “When I advised them of the circumstances surrounding last week’s tragedy (San Bernardino) and my constitutionally protected right to own and possess a firearm, I was advised that no, that was not really the reason (the Shooters World purchase), it was instead the $1.49 RedBox transaction,” says Daley.
Daley also argues that it doesn’t matter whether the account closing was over his purchase at Shooters World or some other purchase. “Whether a purchase is acceptable or not as a business expense is not up to Suntrust Bank,” Daley told us. “That decision is between me, my accountant, and the Internal Revenue Service.”
In our first conversation with Bart Daley, he laughingly described himself as a liberal Democrat while telling us he had voted for President Obama in 2008. “I’m a fiscal conservative with liberal social views,” said Daley. “But since then, I’ve changed my voters registration to NPA (No Party Affiliation).”
For Daley, that’s not all that will be changing. Today, he’ll be opening a new business banking account. And, he’s hopeful the new banking relationship will be better than the last.
Note: Daley wanted to emphasize that the employees at the local Suntrust branch were very professional and helpful in as much as they were allowed by the corporate office.
Seriously you based some of your data to an NRA link? Amazing!!