JPMorgan Chase is shutting down accounts for companies owned by prominent COVID-19 vaccine critic Dr. Joseph Mercola.
The primary accounts for several Mercola-owned businesses, including Mercola Market, are being shut down in August, according to notices reviewed by The Epoch Times.
“Financial institutions have an obligation to know our customers and monitor transactions that flow through our customers’ accounts,” the notices state. “After careful consideration, we decided to close your account because of unexpected activity on these or another Chase account.”
Accounts for Mercola, CEO Steven Rye, Mr. Rye’s wife, chief financial officer Amalia Legaspi, Mrs. Legaspi’s husband, and Mrs. Legaspi’s son are also being closed.
The accountholders are being given until Aug. 11 to move funds to another institution.
They have struggled to get answers on what exactly precipitated the harsh action.
Anthony Anesi, a Chase vice president, told Mr. Rye in a voicemail that he asked for the reason and “was told for legal reasons they can not tell me why they are closing the account.”
Mr. Anesi requested copies of the notices so he could file for reconsideration.
“It’s not a guarantee, once we put in for reconsideration, that they will keep the accounts open. There’s no guarantee of that. But we are going to try because you’re a good client of our institution,” Mr. Anesi said.
Mr. Rye told The Epoch Times that in phone calls with Chase representatives, they said changes were made in the backend and that they cannot access the backend to see the changes.
Mr. Rye said that he believes Chase either based its decision on illegal acts from accountholders, which he says did not take place, or from Chase itself, which could run afoul of a new Florida law that bars banks from denying services to people for their religious, political, or social beliefs.
Dr. Mercola has been a strong critic of the government’s response to COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines. Some of his articles are republished by The Epoch Times.
Chase has “refused to provide any reason” for the debanking, Dr. Mercola said in a statement.
“They won’t say, ‘Hey, what’s this wire for? What’s this transaction for?” Mr. Rye said. “We’ve been doing business for them forever, right? Even in that voicemail, Tony, who we’ve known forever, says, ’You guys are great customers.' I don’t know what’s happening.”
He added: “I think it was a little bit surprising to the timing. The COVID stuff has kind of died down. So I found that a little bit unusual. So I can only speculate. I don’t know exactly why they did it. But we’ve looked at everything within our records. There’s nothing that we did.”
Even if the decisions are reversed, it would be hard to trust Chase enough to keep the accounts, Mr. Rye said.
He and others are preparing to move their money to other institutions before the deadline.
A spokesperson for Chase told The Epoch Times in an email that most account closures are done for anti-money laundering or identify verification purposes.
“For privacy reasons, we can’t discuss customer relationships, but we don’t close accounts because of political affiliations, and we didn’t do so in this case,” the spokesperson said.
Mr. Anesi did not respond to a request for comment.
Robert F. Kennedy, a Democrat running for president who has also been critical of the vaccines, was among those decrying what happened.
“Looks like Chase shut down long-time accounts of Mercola’s company, employees, and their family members. No reason given. I wonder if it has anything to do with their medical dissent?” Mr. Kennedy wrote on Twitter. “No payment platform should be allowed to discriminate against people for exercising their right to free speech.”
History of Debanking
Chase has a history of shutting down accounts of people with certain beliefs.That included an account for Martina Markota, a performing artist-turned-reporter who had worked for the Daily Caller and The Rebel, and an account for Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio.
A spokeswoman for Chase said at the time the events were unrelated.
“He has gotten an email from us, and we have repeatedly talked to him with very clear reasons why. He knows why,” the spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email. “If he agrees in writing that I can share that email with you, I’m happy to do so. But as it stands, I’m not able to share it.”
She also said, “We have never, and would never, shut down any account due to political affiliation.”
In a recording of a call between Mr. Tarrio and a Chase representative, the Chase representative called the account closure “mind-boggling,” adding, “I see nothing that indicates any reason why the account should be closed.”
