A bank recently shut down the accounts of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ media company, citing unauthorized transactions — a move that caused panic at the business when its balances suddenly dropped from more than $2 million to zero, according to a lawyer for the company.
The action last week by Axos Bank also exposed worry and doubt at the company, Free Speech Systems, about being able to find another bank to handle its money.
Jones, a conservative provocateur whose Infowars program promotes fake theories about global conspiracies, UFOs and mind control, is seeking bankruptcy protection as he and his company owe $1.5 billion to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut.
Yes he is an asshole. Yes he deserves to lose all his money. Yes he should/has to pay the victims of sand hook.
My question is what happens to the money in the account? Can the bank just say we are not willing to do business with you anymore and keep it?
If this was me or you, can a bank just deny you access to the money in your account?
I would think… And I am no expert… They could say “we don’t want your business anymore, take the money out of your accounts within 30 days or it’s forfiet” or something. But to think the bank can just close the account and keep the money seems really bad in my eyes.
They’re not keeping the money:
“He said the bank informed Jones’ company that it would be sending a cashier’s check for the total balance.”
In this case, the bank is just saying, “You’re no longer our customer,” and sending him a cashier’s check for the balance / value of his accounts.
In other cases, where the authorities have seized the accounts, the assets are frozen. The bank will turn it over to the authorities (federal, state, whatever) where the monies will generally be kept in an interest-bearing account that keeps track with inflation or similar but otherwise remain inaccessible to the original owner until the legal matters are resolved.
The only time, setting aside simple banking errors, the Bank would keep it is if the Bank is owed money anyway. LIke say, Jones had a huge set of outstanding loans he’d refused to pay. The Bank would simply take funds from the deposit acocunts and use them to pay down the loan(s).
It is.