Bank of America Freezes Ministry Account of Lance Wallnau in Latest Case of Banks Canceling Christians
Christian author, preacher, and podcaster Lance Wallnau is reporting that Bank of America recently froze his ministry's account.
In an Instagram post on Friday, Wallnau wrote: "You won't believe what just happened to me! My own bank account got frozen by Bank of America (BofA) for no reason other than being a conservative podcaster. They were investigating conservative bloggers and Christian ministries for 'money laundering' while ignoring the real threats in America."
He said what he went through was "outrageous and illegal," and now he's aiming to "expose the corruption in our banking system."
Wallnau also attached a video clip from his show where he talked about how he had to go through a marketing audit to get his account unlocked by the bank.
"Thank God that we didn't only have our money in Bank of 'communist' America," Wallnau said. "Because Bank of America froze my account and get this. Because their Marxist progressives in their upper management were investigating ministries and conservative bloggers or podcasters in order to make sure we weren't insurrectionist money laundering operations."
"Meanwhile, the southern border, the greatest money laundering operation that you've got from fentanyl to the cartels and human sex trafficking is completely off the radar," he continued. "While the resources of the FBI are checking out us that are perceived to be a threat."
"This is the kind of dumbness that worries me," Wallnau said. "I got my accounts frozen. I had to go through a complete marketing audit explaining every dollar of our ministry's budget."
"Get this, it's not even legal," he explained. "I did it just because I felt like freeing up the money and documenting how screwed up the Bank of America is."
"Don't think that this is going to go quietly away," Wallnau warned. "We're actually going to have a political, populous, conservative, and Christian unified pushback on the destruction of our liberties and freedoms."
Sources at Bank of America tell CBN News they are looking into Wallnau’s alleged claims about his account.
As CBN News has reported over the last couple of years, multiple conservatives have been targeted by financial institutions.
Back in October, it happened to former U.S. Senator and Religious Freedom Ambassador Sam Brownback. When the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF) needed a bank account, they went to JP Morgan Chase. After only a few weeks they learned their account had been closed.
"I went in to make a deposit at a branch here in Kansas about three or four weeks after we'd opened up the account," Brownback told CBN News at the time. "And the teller there said 'That account's been closed.' And I go, 'What?' and they said, 'That account's been closed. Your funds will be sent to you in a couple of weeks.' And then later they came back and said, 'Well, if you'll disclose who gives more than 10% of your funds to you and your criteria for supporting candidates as a 501c4 we'll consider re-opening up the account.'"
Brownback said he received an apology letter but still doesn't know why the bank made the decision.
CBN News contacted JP Morgan Chase about the incident, and they assured us that, "We would never discontinue a relationship because of religious or political affiliation, and we didn't with this client… We're not proud of how we handled communicating with this client about what we needed from them, and have apologized verbally and in writing."
And while JP Morgan Chase didn't give us a reason for the account closure either, they did say, "We are required by anti-money laundering laws to conduct customer due diligence."
Wondering whether it was discrimination, the NCRF has set up a website called "Chased Away." The group is encouraging people of faith to come forward if they've been denied service by a company or bank.
"It also tells me we need to get people of faith in the boardroom," Brownback said. "I think we need to start campaigns to get a person of faith on every major corporate board in America."
It used to be that companies only wanted your business. These days, they may not, if they disagree with your beliefs.
Since the 2020 election, banks and corporations have denied service to some Trump supporters, and Christian employees continue to be fired for speaking out about their faith.
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As CBN News reported in July of 2022, evangelist and motivational speaker, Nick Vujicic said he was working on plans to start a bank that supports pro-life efforts after learning that many financial institutions donate to organizations that endorse abortions.
Vujicic's efforts were the result of an interview published in March 2019 where he spoke out against the innocent killing of unborn babies.
"Within 16 weeks of doing that, he revealed, 'We had a grenade at our house, a false magazine article published against me, a lawsuit threat, a spying drone, and a bank kicked me out'."
"I got kicked out of a bank with no warning. They froze my credit cards, froze my debit cards," he said. "They gave me a letter to say that they did a review of me as a client and they don't want anything to do with me," he told The Epoch Times.
So Vujicic decided to found his own bank with the help of his good friend Betsy Gray who has an extensive financial background.
The proposed name for the venture is the ProLifeBank (PLB) and is slated to be a full-service financial institution headquartered in Dallas, TX, and available around the globe.
According to the latest update from Vujicic and Gray posted on the PLB's website dated last December, the bank is still in the process of raising capital to purchase an "identified bank."
"Once we raise all the capital to purchase the bank, we are looking at 3 to 6 months to make ProLifeBank* a reality. We'll never stop working!" the two co-founders wrote.