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American Muslim advocacy group Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Tuesday hinted that racial profiling may be the reason why the bank accounts of several dozens of Americans were closed, without any explanation from the banks. It has also filed a complaint at the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to check if race is a factor in the closures.
The notices were sent to business owners, students and nonprofits across the country. Banks in the United States appear to be closing accounts of people connected to Syria and Kuwait. Only last year, Iranian students in the University of Minnesota reportedly had their bank accounts closed.
Sofian Zakout, a businessman from Florida, told the LA Times that he had barely opened accounts at Chase Bank when he got served notices stating that his business and personal accounts were shut down.
“To shut me down — this is not good. This kind of prejudice is not acceptable”, he said.
Zakout also runs American Muslims for Emergency and Relief Inc., which has provided aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Syrian Civil War.
“Usually non-profit and charitable organizations are scared to publicize such things. I’m not going to be quiet. I don’t want to see this happening to anyone again”, he said.
However, experts say that a financial institution need not offer an explanation for closures as it could tip of someone on a potential fraud investigation. According to the Justice Department, all such matters need to be looked at by banking regulators and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
A spokesman for the US Treasury Department said that his department “expects banks to practice due diligence in order to adhere to appropriate laws”.
Brian Kindle from the Association of Certified Financial Crime told the daily that it is not beyond reason that Arab-Americans or Islamic-Americans are being targeted because they may be considered high risk.
“There’s something going on here, and I think it ties back to the de-risking trend”, he said.
The Minnesota chapter of CAIR said that it was involved in a near-identical situation in January 2013, when the accounts of Iranian students studying at the University of Minnesota were closed.
“None of these individuals have been charged with any crimes or engaged in any transaction that violates US law.
The only thing these individuals have in common, aside from TCF [Bank] abruptly and without explanation closing their bank accounts is that they have Muslim names. All of the clients are American citizens. Some are converts to Islam, others were born into a Muslim family; they are various ages and professions; different ethnicities and races”, Saly Abd Alla, CAIR’s civil rights director, said.