America is Choking: Operation Choke Point
Last fall, I got a strange request from the bank I’ve been doing business with for more than 10 years. For the first time ever, this bank asked to see our books. When we asked why, they told us that they needed to review our risk profile.
It seemed odd to me, because we do everything by the book and are about as low-risk as a grocery store or a dry cleaning service. Not to mention the fact that, through all of the various fees we have to pay, our company generates tens of thousands of dollars in revenue for our bank each month.
With nothing to hide, we complied with the request. And naturally, we passed our unexpected risk assessment with flying colors. The bank thanked us for our cooperation, but never really explained the situation to my satisfaction.
A month later we were going through our semi-annual anti-money laundering (AML) training. This is another way we make sure our business is squeaky-clean at all times. Our employees are all trained to spot and report anything that has the appearance of illegality.