My wife and I have been debanked 8 times in the last 6 years. It is not a number I keep for fun. It is a number I keep because each one took something from us.
Some of these happened after President Trump signed an executive order prohibiting debanking. That is why I decided to hold these two brokerages accountable. If the order against debanking means anything, then the people who ignored it should answer for it.
The latest closures
The two firms were Charles Schwab and Tastytrade. I know Tastytrade sounds like a funny name. They are actually one of the better platforms for options trading. That is what makes it so strange. They took my business, then they threw it back at me.
Tastytrade closed my account twice. The first time was on or about July 24, 2025, four days after I opened it. The second time was on or after August 13, 2025, which was after Executive Order 14331. They cited an "internal review" as the reason.
Charles Schwab did the same thing. My account there opened on December 15, 2025 and closed on December 23, 2025. Eight days. Same excuse. "Internal review."
Both firms are in the business of handling stock options. Both approved me. Both reversed course within days. Neither gave me a real explanation.
Why this hurts me specifically
Before January 6, I was a day trader of stock options. I made a decent profit over the years. It was honest work, and it paid for our life.
That all stopped in 2021, after I was arrested for attending an Election Integrity Rally at the Capitol. That is when the debanking started.
Suddenly I was fired from my job. I had to go work construction. I could not earn money trading options anymore. I was locked out of any real source of income, all at once.
People do not understand what debanking does to a person. It does not just close an account. It cuts you off from the entire financial system. No bank account, no credit, no way to get paid, no way to pay bills. It is a quiet way to make a person disappear.
I am in pre-litigation
I am announcing it here: I am in pre-litigation with both brokerages. Charles Schwab and Tastytrade. (I attached my pre-litigation letter below.)
I am not doing this to pick a quarrel. I am doing this because I want an answer. Why did two firms approve my account and then close it days later, with no real explanation? What changed between the approval and the closure?
I think I know the answer. And it is bigger than two brokerages.
There is something more insidious at the root
I keep coming back to one question. Was the Southern Poverty Law Center behind my debanking?
The SPLC has been discredited. That is not my opinion, it is the record. The organization spent years handing out "hate group" labels to anyone it disagreed with. Conservative commentators, Christian charities, parents who spoke up at school board meetings. All of them ended up on the SPLC's list.
And it turns out banks were using that list.
It recently came to light that the SPLC was behind much of the guidance banks used when they decided to debank someone. A federal banking report found the SPLC's "hate group" labels were influencing debanking decisions at major institutions across the country. PNC Bank. JPMorgan Chase. Wells Fargo. TD Bank. TD Ameritrade debanked me and my wife in 2021.
The same SPLC that called Christian debanking a "conspiracy theory" had its fingerprints all over the bank decisions. The feds went digging through bank records, and they found the SPLC's name in the paperwork.
The SPLC is a proxy for the federal government
Here is where it gets bigger.
The SPLC partnered with the Biden administration's Department of Justice. Jim Jordan of the House Judiciary Committee highlighted this fact. The DOJ's Civil Rights Division held regular meetings with the SPLC, gave the SPLC early access to federal law-enforcement data, and let SPLC employees train DOJ prosecutors. Check out this headline:
SPLC, FBI, TSA and ANTIFA Colluded Against Illinois Parent (This occurred in 2023.)
The FBI broke ties with the SPLC in October 2025. That means the FBI had been working with the SPLC before that. They do not cut ties with a group they never used.
A DOJ report showed the Biden administration targeted Christians and used the SPLC to do it. Prosecutors privately called Christian pro-life views "culty" and pursued harsher sentences for peaceful protesters. They used the SPLC's list of "hate groups" to do it.
So here is the big question I keep circling back to: Was it the federal government that ultimately directed banks to debank me?
I am going to find out.
Sources
- U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, "Partisan and Profitable: The SPLC's Influence on Federal Civil Rights Policy," hearing, December 16, 2025. Serial No. 119-45.
- Washington Examiner, "Southern Poverty Law Center traced to debanking of Christian causes," October 23, 2026.
- Revolver News, "SPLC called Christian debanking a 'CONSPIRACY THEORY'... then feds found their fingerprints everywhere," October 26, 2026.
- U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, Jim Jordan letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, "Just How Closely Did Biden's DOJ Rely on the SPLC?," November 25, 2025.
- Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, "Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans," October 14, 2026 (NR-2026-90a).
- Eric Daugherty, "DOJ report... targeted and harassed Christians," May 1, 2026.