A latest Protos report reveals a sequence of enterprise relationships between San Diego-based Axos Financial institution and a string of characters who’ve discovered themselves topic to regulatory or prosecutorial ire.
Axos Financial institution—the direct financial institution affiliate of Axos Monetary, primarily based in Las Vegas, Nevada—has maintained enterprise relationships with quite a lot of people and entities who’ve drawn the scrutiny of regulators, prosecutors, and in some circumstances, the courts.
Axos has maintained relationships with Binance.US and BAM Buying and selling, the dad or mum firm of Binance.US, at the same time as the businesses face a string of authorized challenges. Binance.US and BAM Buying and selling held over 10 accounts with a startling $377 million in buyer funds at Axos as of Might 2023.
Axos additionally presents a service referred to as AxPay that allows crypto firms to bypass the Federal Reserve’s financial institution wire system. An intrabank funds switch system, AxPay is much like choices by banks comparable to Signature Financial institution and Silvergate, each of which shuttered this 12 months.
Whereas Axos has persistently downplayed its engagement with the crypto trade in its quarterly filings, it began accepting Binance US-related deposits in January 2023, additional muddying the waters round its precise crypto publicity.
Past crypto
Axos’ excessive–profile purchasers prolong past its crypto dealings. It has acted because the monetary establishment for Alex Jones, a well known conspiracy theorist and the face of InfoWars, a model owned by Jones’ Free Speech Media, which additionally had accounts at Axos. The financial institution shut down these accounts in September 2023, citing unauthorized transactions as the rationale for this sudden resolution.
One other controversial consumer in Axos’ ebook of enterprise is former U.S. president Donald Trump. Based on a July report within the Washington Put up Axos Financial institution’s CEO, Gregory Garrabrants, personally authorized loans price $225 million to Trump after a number of monetary establishments had severed ties with Trump following the January sixth, 2021 assault on america Capitol.
Axos’ loans helped stabilize Trump’s post-presidential funds, enabling him to mount a possible marketing campaign for the 2024 presidential nomination. Relating to the choice to increase credit score to the previous president, Garrabants instructed the Put up that he was assured of their profit-generating potential and denied favoritism as a figuring out issue.“It wouldn’t matter if I used to be mates with somebody, I’m not going to make a mortgage that’s no good,” he instructed the Put up. “I don’t like anybody that a lot.”
The sequence of distinctive relationships Axos Monetary has fostered has invited consideration to the financial institution’s enterprise methods and threat analysis strategies. Because the crypto trade continues to develop and mature, the practices and operations of banks like Axos Monetary are prone to be subjects of ongoing dialogue and evaluation.
