Chase Bank Closes Accounts Belonging To Florida Doctor Who Criticized COVID, Vaccine Policies

JPMorgan Chase will be shutting down bank accounts for companies owned by vocal COVID-19 vaccine critic Dr. Joseph Mercola. The primary accounts for businesses owned by Mercola, including Mercola Market, will be shut down next month.

“Financial institutions have an obligation to know our customers and monitor transactions that flow through our customers’ accounts,” reads a shutdown notice that was issued to Mercola, according to a report from the Epoch Times. “After careful consideration, we decided to close your account because of unexpected activity on these or another Chase account.”

Accounts for Mercola Market, CEO Steven Rye, his wife, chief financial officer Amalia Legaspi and two members of her family will also be closed. Accountholders were told to move their funds to a different financial institution and informed that their accounts will be closed on August 11.

Anthony Anesi, a Chase vice president, could not provide a reason when asked about the closures, stating that he, “was told for legal reasons they cannot tell me why they are closing the account.”

Anesi requested copies of the notices in order to file a request to halt the decision. “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,” Anesi said.

“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,” Rye told the Epoch Times.

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slammed the decision and asked why “medical dissent” would result in de-banking. “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?”  Kennedy wrote in a tweet. “No payment platform should be allowed to discriminate against people for exercising their right to free speech.”