Bank of America Cuts Off Wikileaks Transactions

Chaonici writes "The first actual bank to do so, Bank of America has decided that it will follow in the footsteps of PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa, and halt all its transactions that it believes are intended for WikiLeaks, including donations in support of the organization. 'This decision,' says the bank, 'is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments.' Coincidentally, in a 2009 interview with Forbes magazine, Julian Assange stated that he was in possession of the hard drive of a Bank of America executive, and that he planned to release information about a major bank early next year."

Our advise is to place your funds somewhere safer

[HungryHobo]

Ok, so it's time for a run on the bank.
Get in before the rush!

Re:Assange also claimed a poison pill if arrested

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Assange also claimed he had a "poison pill" file he'd release if he were arrested.

No he didn't. I challenge you to find a single quote from him saying anything even remotely like that.
All the "poison pill" stuff has been speculation by commentators and pundits regarding the insurance.aes256 file - but Assange hasn't said one word about what that file is or what anyone might do with it.

Here is the thing about banking...

[netsavior]

If Federal regulators even SUSPECT you have been allowing terrorists to receive payment, you are subject to an audit with a cost of about 50 million dollars to support (you have to pay all of your people to deal with the audit instead of their normal job responsibilities). The fines and reprecussions are on top of that initial cost, and can include being barred from the FDIC, which basically shuts down a bank forever.

My guess is that bank of america merely has the inside scoup and wikileaks is about to be declared official terrorists.

Re:Our advise is to place your funds somewhere saf

[jhoegl]

In Arizona, BoA is being charged with fraud.

http://foreclosureblues.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/arizona-attorney-general-charges-bank-of-america-with-mortgage-and-foreclosure-fraud-complaint-here/ [wordpress.com]
So yes... my hope is that Wikileaks does right by the people and exposes this corrupt bank and its practices.

Banks are the number one enemy these days, and rightfully so. They could have actually helped stop the recession by helping homeowners with the mortgages.

Re:Mod This Nonsense To Oblivion

[Teancum]

Bernie Madoff and his scheme had nothing to do with Bank of America.
Also Bank of America had very little to do with MBS, and only got bigger because by buying up those collapsed companies.

Bank of America purchased Countrywide Mortgages, which were right in the thick of the whole mortgage-backed security mess and practically started the system in the first place. When they purchased that company, they took on all of the liabilities including the responsibility to clean up the mess that the company made in the first place. In this sense, Bank of America is Countrywide Mortgages, one of the most notorious lenders of underwater property in America. Their hands are certainly not clean with this mess.

As for Bernie Madoff, I don't think Bank of America was necessarily active in terms of any of its officers directly involved with setting up the ponzi scheme, but to say that Bank of America was completely uninvolved is sort of a lie as well. I don't know the full extent of how they were involved, if any, but I'm sure at least some money that Madoff used went through one or more Bank of America accounts. They are too big of a bank not to be completely uninvolved with the kind of money and the number of clients involved. It was a bit unfair, however, to even invoke Madoff as the MBS mess and loans to illegal immigrants (at the insistence of many within the Democratic Party leadership in Congresss) and other "disadvantaged minorities" with little by way of credit worthiness or ability to pay off the loans routinely did happen with this bank, and that is sufficient to show how corrupt the system got. Madoff is a side show, not the main event, and may even be shown in the long run as a hero as he was at least up front in the end that he was running a ponzi scheme. These banks are doing much worse and getting away with it too.

Re:Looking forward to another wikileaks story

[Hatta]

That quote is from Civil Disobedience. It's a short read and and very much worthwhile. You can find it with a search engine.

Email Bank of America here:

[Graham J - XVI]

https://www1.bankofamerica.com/foundation/index.cfm?template=contact_us_here [bankofamerica.com]

Let them know what you think of their decision and that you'll be closing all your accounts with them.

Re:Our advise is to place your funds somewhere saf

[fast turtle]

Move to a local Credit Union. Cheaper fees and much better service along with responsiveness. I did and Yes I have Direct Deposit, Online Banking with Bill Pay, far better interest on my savings and checking plus a much better rate on my credit card. Another advantage is that a credit union can not pull this kind of shit as the members cand and should review the leadership on a regular basis, then decide if they need replacement.

Re:Our advise is to place your funds somewhere saf

[ScentCone]

Wikileaks isn't for people's personal foibles - it's about malfeasance by those in power.

And only Wikileaks gets to define those things, right? And change those definitions whenever it suits them? How is identifying (in the publishing of stolen State Dept cables) an important figure in the opposition to Iran's current thugocracy of a government about malfeasance by those in power? It's exactly the opposite ... it's about enjoying the power and media attention so much that you don't care if a decent person risking the wrath of the Mullahs gets hammered as a byproduct of your ego-stroking publicity stunts.

Re:Our advise is to place your funds somewhere saf

[Moryath]

When I bought a house, with an FHA loan, I was informed that the loans are only "temporarily" run through FHA and that it'd be sold to a bank within 3 months.

When I found out BofA bought my home loan, I cringed. They're nothing but assholes, the crap I went through when they bought out MBNA and acquired my main credit card was unbelievable.

They recently started fucking around with the interest rates (fortunately the one on the house payment is fixed!) on cards, and they tried to stick an $80 "security" monthly payment to my escrow when, the month after paying yearly property tax, the escrow went a few cents under $50.

Yeah. "Bank of America" needs to get their asses kicked.

Re:Our advise is to place your funds somewhere saf

[Naturalis Philosopho]

The other half of the story is this... The banks gave out loans that they knew had very little chance of ever being repaid and then sold those bad loans off to the unwary as fast as they could. Legal does not equal ethical. Remember that, and you'll know why people are so pissed at the banks. If they were in it to make an ethical buck, then they could have still made those loans, kept the risk, then re-mortgaged people who were in trouble at more favorable (to the borrower), but less profitable terms (for the owner of the loan), which would have still made the banks (less) money AND kept people in their homes. Instead, the banks chose to foreclose, as that way they could charge the people they sold the bad loans to for administering the foreclosure, not have to worry about losing the principle or interest on the loans, and leaving borrowers bankrupt and homeless. Sure, the people who took those loans shouldn't have, but if only one party, ie the banks, had done the right thing at any step of the way, everyone could have still come out of this without it having been half as bad as it's been.