(LifeSiteNews) — Thirty-three state officials have written to the scandal-plagued big bank JPMorgan Chase demanding that it cease alleged politically and religiously discriminatory “de-banking” of customers.
Fourteen state financial officers wrote a letter to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on March 23, calling on the bank to take swift action to “prevent internal political and anti-religious bias” to help remedy its pattern of “de-banking” conservatives.
“We urge Chase to immediately take steps to…address internal drivers of political or anti-religious bias that could undermine its fiduciary obligations and impair the freedom of its customers to access financial services without fear of discrimination,” wrote the officers.
The officers cited several examples of apparent “political bias,” including Chase subsidiary WePay’s denial in 2021 of ticket payment processing for a Republican event hosted by Defense of Liberty, citing a policy prohibiting payment processing connected to “hate” or “racial intolerance.”
They also pointed to the bank’s closing of the National Committee for Religious Freedom’s (NCRF) account “without explanation,” before informing NCRF that Chase would only consider reinstating them if they provided a list of their donor lists and supported political candidates.
The group of treasurers, auditors, controllers, and commissioners of revenue also demanded that the bank come clean about its decision making by completing a Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index transparency questionnaire.
The letter noted that Chase had refused a request from its shareholders to complete the survey component “about internal policies and practices that impact the civil liberties of all customers and employees.”
READ: JP Morgan Chase ‘persistently discriminated’ against conservatives: 19 Republican AGs
On May 2, 19 state attorneys general likewise wrote to Dimon slamming the bank for “persistently discriminat[ing] against certain customers due to their religious or political affiliation.”
The state officials declared that such “discrimination” is a violation of Chase’s own claim that it “opposes discrimination in any form” and of its “Equal Opportunity, Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Statement,” which states that “No form of discrimination…is tolerated by or against employees, customers, vendors, contractors or any other individuals who conduct business with JPMorgan Chase.”
The letter, led by Daniel Cameron, Attorney General of Kentucky, expressed concern that “this pattern of discrimination means that many Kentuckians,” along with residents of other states, “are at risk of being de-banked without notice or recourse.”
“No individual or organization should have to worry that religious or political beliefs will limit access to financial services or undermine financial stability,” wrote the attorneys general.
JPMorgan Chase Bank was sued earlier this year by the U.S. Virgin Islands for having “facilitated and sustained” notorious financier Jeffrey Epstein’s expansive sex trafficking network. The legal complaint cites messages Epstein exchanged with Jes Staley, the former head of a JPMorgan division that catered to extremely wealthy clients, in which the two referred to presumed sex-trafficked girls by individual Disney princess names.
The original lawsuit, filed December 27, 2022, alleged that “JP Morgan turned a blind eye to evidence of human trafficking over more than a decade because of Epstein’s own financial footprint, and because of the deals and clients that Epstein brought and promised to bring to the bank.”
Staley, who went on to become CEO of Barclays Bank, resigned that position in 2021 after the “preliminary conclusions” of an investigation by British regulators over his ties to Epstein.