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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.<\/p>\n
Four hours after the attack began, police pursued and stopped a\u00a0black SUV carrying Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, a married couple, and after a fierce gun battle killed the two Islamic extremist.<\/p>\n
Daley watched the unfolding events and as he says, \u201cI 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.\u201d That very afternoon, Daley went to\u00a0Shooters World\u00a0and purchased a handgun. Little did he know that making that decision would cost him a business relationship with Suntrust Bank.<\/p>\n
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, \u201cpursuant 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. \u00a0But for any small business, a bank withholding funds, as Suntrust was doing, can have devastating consequences.<\/p>\n
Since being informed that his money \u201cwould be mailed within 30 days,\u201d Daley has scrambled to gather enough cash to keep his business running.<\/p>\n
But, the real shocker for Daley came when he visited the Suntrust Bank location on Hwy 19 and asked what \u2018recent purchase activity\u2019\u00a0triggered the account closure? \u201cI was informed that my purchase at Shooters World, a local Tampa-area firearms retailer, was not an acceptable purchase,\u201d says Daley.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0American Gun and Pawn\u00a0in March of this year.<\/p>\n
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,\u00a0has pressured banks to drop clients that they term high risk. The official name of the program is called\u00a0\u201cOperation Choke Point.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Maybe Suntrust Bank, in bowing to the federal pressure, is just being overly aggressive.<\/p>\n The program was started under Attorney General Eric Holder\u2019s regime at the Department of Justice with the help of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).<\/p>\n 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\u2019s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Bresnick stated that \u201cOperation Choke Point\u201d aimed to stop banks from providing services to scammers.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, stopping scammers is not how \u201cOperation Choke Point\u201d has actually been used in Realville. The problem with \u201cOperation Choke Point\u201d 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.\u00a0According to The Washington Times<\/a>, several firearm businesses over the last few years have reported sudden disruptions of their relationships with their banks and they attribute this to \u201cOperation Choke Point.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cOperation Choke Point\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Daley voiced his frustration with Suntrust\u2019s cancellation of his business account by writing a letter, titled \u2018Beware Suntrust Bank,\u2019 to all his business associates (see below).<\/p>\n \u201cSuntrust\u2019s actions have caused us great distress because we were in the middle of leasing new office space in Tampa and now don\u2019t have access to the funds needed to complete the transaction,\u201d said Daley.<\/p>\n A Suntrust Bank employee did confirm Daley\u2019s story of initially being told the Shooters World purchase was \u2018not an acceptable\u00a0purchase.\u2019 But, that same employee went on to say that there were other purchases on Daley\u2019s account that Suntrust deemed unacceptable on a business account.\u00a0\u201cWhen I advised them of the circumstances surrounding last week\u2019s 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,\u201d says Daley.<\/p>\n Daley also argues that it doesn\u2019t matter whether the account closing was over his purchase at Shooters World or some other purchase. \u201cWhether a purchase is acceptable or not as a business expense is not up to Suntrust Bank,\u201d Daley told us. \u201cThat decision is between me, my accountant, and the Internal Revenue Service.\u201d<\/p>\n 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. \u201cI\u2019m a fiscal conservative with liberal social views,\u201d said Daley. \u201cBut since then, I\u2019ve changed my voters registration to NPA (No Party Affiliation).\u201d<\/p>\n For Daley, that\u2019s not all that will be changing. Today, he\u2019ll be opening a new business banking account. And, he\u2019s hopeful the new banking relationship will be better than the last.<\/p>\n