De-Banked

Today my banking institution of 26 years, Citizens Bank, declared that they were ending their banking relationship with me. My accounts were zeroed out without explanation.

Today my banking institution of 26 years, Citizens Bank, declared that they were ending their banking relationship with me. My accounts were zeroed out without explanation. While I may eventually see this money returned to me, the question of why this occurred remains unanswered, raising a whole host of issues related to civil liberties.

I’ve been de-banked.

I recently tried to use my bank-issued debit card. I’ve used this card consistently as my go-to method of payment for years.

It was declined.

When my wife when on the online banking app we use for mobile banking, she was shocked to find that both our checking and savings account had been zeroed out.

We literally had no money.

My wife called our local branch to find out what the problem was. In the past the bank unilaterally closed the account because of suspicious activity they felt could be linked to possible identity theft. In every case, once we either confirmed or denied the validity of a flagged charge, our account was returned to its normal status.

When we tried to find out what the issue was, the bank said that there was no information on file as to why the account had been zeroed out, and that we would need to bring the issue up with corporate headquarters.

We called the number provided, only to be told that Citizens Bank had closed our accounts. We were told that Citizens Bank had sent a letter containing more information.

I rifled through a stack of unopened mail and found the letter in question. “This letter is to inform you that Citizens has elected to discontinue its account relationship with you by closing [my account] effective January 13, 2026.”

There was more. “Citizens has the contractual right to close your account at any time,” the letter declared, adding that “Citizens is under no obligation to disclose to you its reasons for closing the account. At this time therefore, Citizen’s policy prevents the disclosure of any information concerning the decision to close the accounts.”

According to a December 2024 report issued by the House Judiciary Committee, “Debanking occurs when a bank closes an individual or corporate account because the account holder, or their actions, are subjectively determined to pose a financial, legal, or reputational risk to the financial institution.”

According to this report, “The term “debanking” stems from de-risking, which involves ‘terminating or restricting business relationships with clients or categories of clients to avoid, rather than manage, risk.’”

In short, I have done nothing wrong.

My (former) bank manager agrees with me.

But something, or someone, triggered a “de-risking” concern among the corporate heads at Citizens, and they terminated our relationship.

No due process, no possibility of appeal.

One doesn’t begin to comprehend just how dependent we are on the digital economy until it is taken away from you.

All my family’s bills are paid electronically, drawing on funds that used to exist in the accounts that no longer exist.

My debit card was my wallet.

Cash was the stuff I carried with me to Russia, because my American digital financial profile doesn’t work in Russia.

When you are “de-banked”, you are literally disconnected from the modern world.

And because they took my money, I don’t even have the possibility of falling back on cash reserves.

“De-banking” is designed to destroy the targeted individual.

So, asking who or what was behind this decision is a legitimate point of departure when examining this larger issue.

We return to the House Judiciary report: “The filing of a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is one of the primary reasons for account closure. The other is a high-risk designation. Debanking can occur ‘as a result of an anti-money laundering and reputational risk regime administered by the federal banking agencies where certain types of customers are designated as ‘high-risk.’”

According to the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC), which administers the federal banking system and supervises more than 1,000 national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks operating in the United States with the goal of ensuring that national banks and federal savings associations operate in a safe and sound manner and comply with applicable laws and regulations, “A Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is filed by financial institutions to report potential money laundering, terrorist financing, or other financial crimes to the government, triggered by unusual transactions or red flags like large, unexplained cash movements.”

Now, I’m a man of very humble means, and my bank accounts are not accustomed to having large amounts of cash pass through them on the best of days. But when I announced that I was travelling to Russia, there was a wave of donations which made this trip possible. One of the key aspects of maintaining my status as an independent journalist is to pay for all expenses associated with my journalistic work. Russia is disconnected from the western digital economy, which means that I must carry cash into Russia. The amount of cash that one can carry into Russia is limited to $10,000, which just happens to be the threshold amount that triggers the automatic filing of an SAR by a banking institution.

This is why I sat down with my local branch manager and explained what I was doing—the sources of money that was coming into my account, and why I was taking out large cash withdrawals. I, of course, was careful never to surpass the $10,000 threshold, but simple math allows one to add up the withdrawals made and reach the conclusion that I had, indeed, withdrawn $10,000.

I made three trips to Russia in 2025—August, October, and November.

On each trip I took $10,000 in cash—fully declared to my banking institution.

Again, the OCC: “A financial institution is required to file a suspicious activity report no later than 30 calendar days after the date of initial detection of facts that may constitute a basis for filing a suspicious activity report. If no suspect was identified on the date of detection of the incident requiring the filing, a financial institution may delay filing a suspicious activity report for an additional 30 calendar days to identify a suspect. In no case shall reporting be delayed more than 60 calendar days after the date of initial detection of a reportable transaction.”

The “initial detection” moment for my cash withdrawals would have been in early August.

The next “detectable event” would have occurred in October, and the last one in November.

Complicating issues further is that my daughter was married on November 1, and there were cash transactions taking place regarding various wedding expenses.

According to the OCC, “Unusual Transactions” involve “large deposits/withdrawals, frequent transactions without clear purpose, or activity inconsistent with the customer’s profile.” Another factor to be considered is “Complex Patterns”, which involve a “complex series of transactions, unusual wire transfer patterns, or attempts to avoid reporting thresholds (like the $10,000 cash transaction rule).” A third relevant factor is what is called “Lack of Legitimacy”, where transactions have “no clear business purpose or legitimate activity behind transactions.”

This is why I spent so much time explaining to my local banker what I was doing, and why I was doing it.

And this is why I believe my local banker did not file any SAR’s related to my Russia travel.

But someone did.

The last large cash withdrawal related to my Russia travel took place in early November 2025.

The 30-day threshold would require the bank to issue a SAR by early December 2025.

This was not done.

Now, it is possible that the Citizens Bank fraud detection unit flagged these transactions on their own volition. There is a history of such activity—back when I submitted invoices to RT for compensation for articles I wrote, I would put the title of the article in the document title. Once I used the term “Syria”, and Citizens Bank flagged the transaction and froze my accounts. When I contacted Citizens Bank, they said the transaction was flagged because I was engaged in activity with Syria, a sanctioned entity. They said that the flag was triggered by the Office of Foreign Asset Control, the Department of Treasury sanctions enforcement arm.

I wrote a letter to OFAC informing them that their actions ran afoul of my First Amendment rights, and that I was preparing to take action. I subsequently received a call from an OFAC official, who informed me that they had nothing to do with it. He said each bank had its own OFAC compliance department, and that these departments often acted on their own volition believing they were implementing OFAC policies.

I called Citizens Bank back, got in touch with their OFAC enforcement group, and we quickly resolved the issue.

But SARs are different. Federal law does not require banks to explain why they close an account, and in cases where a SAR is filed, banks are statutorily prohibited by the Bank Secrecy Act from disclosing the reason for account closure because it could indirectly notify the subject of a SAR that a SAR has been filed.

A literal Catch 22.

But through my persistence, I was able to get Citizens to inform me that the enforcement action was taken by the Priority Response team within Citizens, which deals with governmental relations.

The Feds were behind this.

Now this is where it gets curious.

The Northern District of New York empaneled a Grand Jury targeting me back in August 2024.

The Grand Jury can issue subpoenas of all my banking information, and there is no doubt in my mind that this was done.

The entire SAR process becomes moot at this juncture, because the Justice Department has complete access to every transaction I made, and make, for as long as the Grand Jury is empaneled, which is usually between 18-24 months.

When the FBI raided the home of Dmitri Simes back in September 2024, they also froze his bank accounts. Simes and his wife had been accused of evading sanctions and money laundering, and the accounts linked to this alleged behavior were frozen.

When the FBI raided my home in August 2024, they made no move against my banking accounts because, simply put, there was no reason to. I know they subpoenaed my tax and banking records, and because I know what I have done, I know that there was no evidence of any criminal activity derived from either investigation.

When the FBI began returning my seized belongings in July 2025, it looked as if their interest in me was fading. I told them of my planned trip to Russia in August, and they indicated that they had no concerns.

Now, the FBI can and does lie, but in general if illegal activity is identified they quickly move to shut it down and hold the accused accountable.

I have done nothing illegal.

And my accounts have not been seized through any legal action on the part of the Federal government, but rather the unilateral action of Citizens Bank.

But this does not preclude federal involvement.

Some background:

When I resigned from the United Nations Special Commission in August 1998, the CIA Station Chief in New York informed me that the FBI was going to “fuck me in my ass” for the rest of my life.

Me and my family.

In 2002, FBI Special Agent Michael Templeton, an infamous polygrapher who threatened an Egyptian student’s family with rape and torture to extract a false confession, was brought in to administer a polygraph to my wife. The FBI claimed they wanted my assistance to help clear up the issue of whether or not Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, but before I could be brought “back in” my wife, a naturalized American citizen from the former Soviet Union, needed to be polygraphed (the CIA had long falsely asserted that my wife was an employee of the Soviet secret services.)

We agreed to the polygraph, and the FBI brought in two female special agents who walked my wife through the process. But on the day of the polygraph, the female agents were not to be found—just Special Agent Templeton, who immediately confronted my wife that she had lied on her questionnaires. My wife had reported that she did not know any Russian intelligence officers, and the FBI contended that the husband of one of my wife’s friends who worked in the Russian Foreign Ministry worked for Russian intelligence. My wife made it clear that she did not know what this man did for work besides being listed as an employee of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Templeton screamed at my wife that she was in deep trouble and could go to jail for years. If she confessed, he said, she would be given lenient treatment.

My wife responded that she had nothing to confess, and that as far as she was done the interview was over, and that if Templeton wanted to arrest her, he should get it over with. Otherwise, she was leaving.

Templeton then threatened her. “We aren’t done here,” he screamed. “We will fuck your husband forever; we will fuck you brother and his family. We will fuck you parents. We will fuck your daughters. And we will fuck you for the rest of your life.”

Templeton told my wife that she was on a special watch list that was submitted annually by the FBI to Congress, and that she would remain on this list the rest of her life.

We know what happened to me; the FBI was true to its word.

In 2016 my daughter was accepted into the Peace Corps and assigned a position in the Republic of Georgia. Each Peace Corps applicant needed to pass a security background check. My daughter’s investigation was not complete at the time of her assignment, so she was deployed with the understanding that the security check would be completed before she began her official duties. But nothing happened. Neither the Peace Corps nor the Governmental Services Agency running the checks knew what happened to her paperwork, and they were prepared to send her home, ending her Peace Corps experience. I wrote to my Congressman, Paul Tonko, and told him I believed that my daughter was being targeted for retribution by the FBI. I asked that he initiate an inquiry into the issue, under the believe that the moment he did, my daughter’s file would be “found”.

This is exactly what had happened—an FBI agent had taken her paperwork, and stuck it in a drawer, knowing she would be sent home. Only because of the Congressional inquiry did this plan go awry. Otherwise, Mike Templeton’s threat to “fuck my family” would have been carried out.

Which brings us to the present matter.

The House Judiciary Committee, after an investigation into the FBI and Justice Department’s behavior regarding individuals accused of breaking the law on January 6, 2021, determined that “the FBI ‘has manipulated’ the SAR’s filing process to treat financial institutions ‘as de facto arms of law enforcement, issuing ‘requests’ without legal process, that amount to demands for information related to certain persons or activities it considers ‘suspicious.’”

The FBI does this by “tipping off financial institutions to ‘suspicious’ individuals and encouraging these institutions to file a SAR — which does not require any legal process.”

There was no need for the FBI to “tip off” Citizens Bank to anything—they had the Grand Jury available to get a legal warrant at any time to gain access.

What I am beginning to suspect is that someone in the FBI, fully armed with the totality of my banking transactions and knowing I was not breaking the law, nevertheless “tipped off” Citizen’s Bank about “suspicious activity” that resulted in Citizen’s Bank issuing a SAR.

If the FBI does this three times in a row (August, October, and November), a pattern is created, resulting in my account being designated as a “high risk” account.

“High Risk accounts” present banks with regulatory issues and, regardless of the fact that no illegal activity was detected, banks will opt to “de-Risk” by closing down the accounts.

By “de-banking”.

Which is exactly what happened to me.

I’ve been de-banked.

I can’t pay my bills on time.

I don’t have access to my money, and such I have no cash.

Now, this isn’t my first rodeo, and I’m not stupid, so clearly, I have put in place measures that will enable me to get by.

But it isn’t convenient.

There are bills to pay that aren’t going to get paid on time.

And God forbid that an emergency arises which requires me to need access to my money now.

The purpose of “de-banking” is to harass a targeted individual.

To make their life hell.

I personally do not believe that the FBI has made a formal decision to do this.

I do believe that I have a file inside the National Security Division of the FBI, created by Special Agent Michael Templeton, that says “Fuck for Life.”

And I believe that corrupt FBI agents in the National Security Division fully intend to fulfill Templeton’s instructions.

I call upon Paul Tonko to inquire into the reason why I was “de-banked”, with the specific request to find out if the Priority Response team at Citizens Bank had received any tips from federal law enforcement that prompted their investigation.

I call upon Kash Patel to investigate the FBI’s National Security Division to find out what, if any, contact was made by FBI personnel and Citizens Bank regarding my financial activity, and to hold those personnel accountable who are using federal law enforcement as a means of punishing Americans for exercising their First Amendment rights.

And I call upon my supporters and the American public at large to not be silent about this action. Write letters to Paul Tono. Write letters to Kash Patel. Write letters to Citizens Bank. Make your voice heard.

Because if they can de-bank me, they can de-bank anyone.

And I’m here to tell you it is not a pleasant experience.

Paul Tonko

2269 Rayburn HOB

Washington, DC 20515

Kash Patel

Director, FBI

935 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

Washington, DC 20535-0001

Chairman & CEO, Bruce Van Saun

Citizens Bank

One Citizens Plaza

Providence, Rhode Island 02903