Operation Choke Point terminated... good news for clubbers
azrookie
Arizona
Flying under most people's radar and widely under-reported by the the press, the Obama Holder DOJ launched a program several years ago called Operation Choke Point (OCP). It worked like this. DOJ targeted 30 industries that the Obama administration unilaterally designated as "high risk" to banks. The alleged risk was "reputation risk." The OCP list included business such as ammunition sales, escort services, get-quick-rich schemes, on-line gambling, “racist materials” and payday loans. Small FFL dealers were a particular target. The DOJ would pressure banks to discontinue providing financial services to these targeted businesses. The ultimate goal was to financially starve these companies. Banks that failed to cooperate with OCP were threatened with extreme scrutiny from the DOJ and bank regulators. The Trump DOJ announced this week that OCP was nothing more than a tool to target politically unpopular yet legitimate, licensed businesses and the program is formally terminated.
Why bring this up on tuscl? Two reasons. I would imagine that most strip club owners are small business guys who depend heavily on access to lines of credit and banking services to run their enterprises. I would imagine that a overactive DOJ would lump strip clubs in a broadly defined escort/sex industry/porn category that is targeted by OCP. Choking off access to banking services could be fatal to the strip club.
Second reason. About four weeks ago, I stopped into my local club on a Sun afternoon. One of my regular fave dancers comes over to chat. As we talk, she tells me that her bank just informed her that she was no longer welcome to bank with them. The bank gave her no reason for closing her accounts. She was now trying to shop for a new place to do her banking. I suspect that the pattern of bank transactions a stripper conducts would raise a red flag, particularly the regular stream of cash deposits. Add to that she is SE Asian, here on a green card and send tons of money back to her family offshore. I was puzzled why the bank kicked her account to the curb, but this news about OCP connects the dots rather well.
Why bring this up on tuscl? Two reasons. I would imagine that most strip club owners are small business guys who depend heavily on access to lines of credit and banking services to run their enterprises. I would imagine that a overactive DOJ would lump strip clubs in a broadly defined escort/sex industry/porn category that is targeted by OCP. Choking off access to banking services could be fatal to the strip club.
Second reason. About four weeks ago, I stopped into my local club on a Sun afternoon. One of my regular fave dancers comes over to chat. As we talk, she tells me that her bank just informed her that she was no longer welcome to bank with them. The bank gave her no reason for closing her accounts. She was now trying to shop for a new place to do her banking. I suspect that the pattern of bank transactions a stripper conducts would raise a red flag, particularly the regular stream of cash deposits. Add to that she is SE Asian, here on a green card and send tons of money back to her family offshore. I was puzzled why the bank kicked her account to the curb, but this news about OCP connects the dots rather well.
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That said, I highly doubt it came into play against a single dancer. That dancer could have been doing any number of things to make the bank nervous (justifiably or not).
We just need to send a big fleet of Asgard tech loaded space ships over NK and enact force fields to stop all projectiles and missiles and then vaporize their missiles and artillery and impress the hell out of the rest of the world with our secret tech.
I realize that I give up a little bit of anonymity, but it's worth it in terms of me not having to withdraw/handle so much cash, and the very creative and adventurous ways in which they show appreciation when I can "help out" quickly.